Should Jupiter switch to a heat pump?

The math in Jupiter isn't close — a heat pump wins outright. 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). Jupiter's residents would see roughly $334 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 3 years. Nothing about that conclusion is generic — it's built entirely from Jupiter's own numbers.

The climate behind Jupiter's payback figure

Degree days tell the story here: Jupiter racks up 106 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 4633 cooling degree days on the cooling side. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 48°F, against a record low of 46.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.63 for the recommended standard unit. A standard ducted system is enough here; Jupiter's design temperature doesn't justify the cold-climate premium. Source: NOAA station PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL AIRP, 16.2 miles from Jupiter — the closest one on record.

The month-to-month numbers for Jupiter

A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 74 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $621 a year on electricity. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 1 Mcf a year at 25.48 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $955 a year (electricity here runs 15.43¢/kWh). Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 33 years, leaving the 15-year total $4,005 ahead.

If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas

Plenty of homes in Jupiter heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Jupiter's answer improves. The saving here runs about $347 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 15.9 years.

How Jupiter compares nationally

Among 3206 cities, Jupiter's winter puts it at rank 3144 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 627 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.

Next step for 62,987 people in Jupiter

About 62,987 people live in Jupiter, 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, 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

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Jupiter's 3.63 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. See what Jupiter's figure looks like without the $2,000 federal credit in the guide to how that credit moves the payback window.