Is a heat pump worth it in Henderson?

In Henderson, the math is close enough that it comes down to how long you plan to stay. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,500 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). That premium is recovered through $312 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 11.2 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Henderson's numbers don't point clearly either way.

How cold Henderson actually gets

Henderson barely has a winter to speak of — 1060 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 3212 cooling degree days. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 23.7°F, against a record low of 13.6°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.27 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Henderson sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. These numbers come from RUSK COUNTY AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 3.2 miles out.

The month-to-month numbers for Henderson

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 821 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $575 a year. Henderson's gas rate of 19.42 per Mcf, applied to the 11 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $887 a year, against 16.15¢ per kWh for electricity. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 43.3 years; over 15 years the net position sits $1,177 ahead.

The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with

Plenty of homes in Henderson heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. Switching saves about $531 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $8,000 spent up front comes back in about 15.1 years.

Where Henderson ranks in this dataset

Among 3206 cities, Henderson's winter puts it at rank 2866 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2586 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. 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 Henderson

Henderson, Texas is home to about 13,485 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 Henderson, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.

Where Henderson's figure comes from

Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Henderson's 3.27 seasonal COP and payback figure. Henderson's 23.7°F design temperature is below the 25°F line, which is why a cold-climate unit is the right call here — see what that changes in the cold-climate unit guide.