Heat Pump Payback in Hollywood, FL
Will a heat pump pay off in Hollywood, FL?
In Hollywood, the math is close enough that it comes down to how long you plan to stay. $3,000 is what Hollywood would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again. That premium is recovered through $350 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 8.6 years. Whether that's worth it in Hollywood depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
Compare against another city
Hollywood is one of 3206 cities covered here, each run through the same model. Search another below.
The climate behind Hollywood's payback figure
Degree days tell the story here: Hollywood racks up 59 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 4980 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 52°F here (coldest 2024 reading 51.1°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.75 for the standard class of unit this climate calls for. A standard ducted system is enough here; Hollywood's design temperature doesn't justify the cold-climate premium. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Ft Laud/Hollywood International Apt, 3.3 miles from Hollywood.
The yearly running costs in Hollywood
Heating hardly figures in Hollywood: on a 2000-square-foot reference house the heat pump's roughly $661 yearly electric bill is nearly all cooling. With so little heating demand, a furnace in Hollywood would burn only about 1 Mcf a year ($25.48 per Mcf); almost all of the $1,012 yearly running cost of the current system is cooling, at 15.43¢/kWh. Any saving here is really a cooling-efficiency saving. If the current system still worked and you replaced it anyway, the full cost would take longer than the 15-year equipment life to earn back; against buying a new furnace and AC regardless, the 15-year total lands $2,253 ahead.
The break-even point in Hollywood
Because the heat pump's better air conditioning saves more electricity than its heating uses, it stays cheaper to run than the current furnace and AC in Hollywood at any electricity price. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $350 a year saved, a difference under $2,450 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,500 within 10.
Electric resistance heat in Hollywood, compared
Plenty of homes in Hollywood heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Against electric-resistance heat, baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance, the case for switching gets stronger here. Even against resistance heat, the running-cost gap here isn't enough to clear the $7,500 incremental cost within the equipment's 15-year life.
How Hollywood compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Hollywood's winter puts it at rank 3172 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 169 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 Hollywood
About 159,073 people live in Hollywood, 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, there's no cost penalty to waiting until your current furnace or AC actually needs replacing.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
Where Hollywood's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page, the 3.75 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. Not every home in Hollywood has gas; the guide comparing a heat pump against electric baseboard covers that case separately.