Greenacres, FL: the heat pump payback math
In Greenacres, a heat pump is the cheaper choice, and not by a little. $1,000 is what Greenacres 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. Greenacres's residents would see roughly $334 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 3 years. Nothing about that conclusion is generic — it's built entirely from Greenacres's own numbers.
The climate behind Greenacres's payback figure
Greenacres barely has a winter to speak of — 106 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 4633 cooling degree days. 48°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of 46.9°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.63 on the standard unit fit for this climate. A standard ducted system is enough here; Greenacres's design temperature doesn't justify the cold-climate premium. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL AIRP, 4.7 miles from Greenacres.
Greenacres's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 74 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $621 a year. That compares with roughly 1 Mcf a year of gas at Greenacres's 25.48 per-Mcf rate — about $955 a year — against a local electricity rate of 15.43¢/kWh. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 33 years, leaving the 15-year total $4,005 ahead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Gas isn't universal in Greenacres — many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $347 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 15.9 years.
Where Greenacres ranks in this dataset
Greenacres lands at position 3145 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 910 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
What to do with this number in Greenacres
About 45,197 people live in Greenacres, Florida, and every number on this page is what a contractor would actually work from when quoting a system here — the point isn't to replace that quote, it's to tell you whether to bother asking for one. Here, it's worth getting quotes before your current system fails, not after.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page — the 3.63 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. See what Greenacres's figure looks like without the $2,000 federal credit in the guide to how that credit moves the payback window.