Should Humble switch to a heat pump?
In Humble, a heat pump pays for itself within a reasonable window. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $1,000 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Humble's residents would see roughly $322 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 3.1 years. That's a real payback, built from Humble's own climate and utility rates, not a national guess.
Why Humble's climate drives this number
Degree days tell the story here: Humble racks up 891 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 3637 cooling degree days on the cooling side. 28.9°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of 18°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.06 on the standard unit fit for this climate. A standard ducted system is enough here; Humble's design temperature doesn't justify the cold-climate premium. These numbers come from G BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AP/HO, the closest NOAA station, 5.8 miles out.
The month-to-month numbers for Humble
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 737 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $620 a year. Humble's gas rate of 19.42 per Mcf, applied to the 9 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $941 a year, against 16.15¢ per kWh for electricity. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 34.2 years; over 15 years the net position sits $3,823 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Humble, compared
Not every home in Humble has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Humble's answer improves. The saving here runs about $506 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 10.9 years.
How Humble compares nationally
Humble lands at position 2940 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2237 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 Humble
About 16,561 people live in Humble, 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, it's worth getting quotes before your current system fails, not after.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page — the 3.06 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. See what Humble's figure looks like without the $2,000 federal credit in the guide to how that credit moves the payback window.