Should Horizon City switch to a heat pump?
This one's marginal in Horizon City: it only clears if you stay long enough. 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 $382 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 9.2 years. Whether that's worth it in Horizon City depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
The climate behind Horizon City's payback figure
Horizon City has a mild winter by US standards — 1672 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 3565 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 21.9°F here (record low 21°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.23 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Horizon City 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 EL PASO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, 14.2 miles from Horizon City — the closest one on record.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 1,311 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $703 a year. Horizon City's gas rate of 19.42 per Mcf, applied to the 17 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $1,084 a year, against 16.15¢ per kWh for electricity. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 35.4 years; over 15 years the net position sits $2,226 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Horizon City, compared
Gas isn't universal in Horizon City — 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 $727 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 11 years.
Where Horizon City ranks in this dataset
Horizon City lands at position 2606 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1619 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.
Next step for 24,802 people in Horizon City
About 24,802 people live in Horizon City, Texas, 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.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Horizon City's 3.23 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. At a 21.9°F design temperature, Horizon City sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.