Should Hillsboro switch to a heat pump?
In Hillsboro, the math is close enough that it comes down to how long you plan to stay. $3,500 is what Hillsboro 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. Hillsboro's residents would see roughly $251 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 13.9 years. Whether that's worth it in Hillsboro depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
The climate behind Hillsboro's payback figure
4589 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Hillsboro has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 411 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. 15.1°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of 12.9°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.06 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Hillsboro — below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, PORTLAND-HILLSBORO AIRPORT, 1.2 miles from Hillsboro.
Hillsboro's running-cost comparison, in dollars
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 3,797 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $628 a year on electricity. Hillsboro's gas rate of 16.71 per Mcf, applied to the 48 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $879 a year, against 15.14¢ per kWh for electricity. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 53.7 years, leaving the 15-year total $269 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Hillsboro, compared
Not every home in Hillsboro has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Hillsboro's answer improves. Switching saves about $1,212 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 6.6 years.
How Hillsboro compares nationally
Hillsboro lands at position 1097 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 293 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Hillsboro
About 110,337 people live in Hillsboro, Oregon, 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, there's no cost penalty to waiting until your current furnace or AC actually needs replacing.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Hillsboro's 3.06 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. At a 15.1°F design temperature, Hillsboro sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.