Is a heat pump worth it in Gary?

Here in Gary, the honest answer is that a heat pump raises your annual running cost. $3,500 is what Gary would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. Unfortunately the electric bill outweighs the gas bill it replaces by about $120 a year here, so the extra spend stays unrecovered. That's Gary's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.

How cold Gary actually gets

Degree days tell the story here: Gary racks up 4836 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1011 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: -0.4°F here (record low -9.4°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.69 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Gary needs the cold-climate class of unit: past a 25°F design temperature a standard heat pump falls back on resistance backup often enough to eat the savings. Source: NOAA station GARY/CHICAGO AIRPORT, 4 miles from Gary — the closest one on record.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 4,552 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $922 a year. That compares with roughly 50 Mcf a year of gas at Gary's 11.49 per-Mcf rate — about $802 a year — against a local electricity rate of 17.03¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $5,303 behind.

If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas

Gas isn't universal in Gary — many houses run on electric heat already. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. About $1,386 a year comes back this way, enough that the 5.8-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.

Where Gary ranks in this dataset

Gary lands at position 932 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 577 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.

Next step for 67,555 people in Gary

Gary, Indiana is home to about 67,555 people, and the figures above are the same ones a local HVAC contractor uses to size and quote a system — this site doesn't guess where a real quote would land, it just tells you whether it's worth asking for one. In Gary, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.

Reading further on this page's numbers

Every constant behind this page — the 2.69 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. Gary's -0.4°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.