Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Kenmore, WA
This one's marginal in Kenmore: it only clears if you stay long enough. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $3,500 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Lower bills claw that back: about $318 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 11 years. Whether that's worth it in Kenmore depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
The climate behind Kenmore's payback figure
4489 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Kenmore has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 200 cooling degree days, where summers rarely ask much of an air conditioner. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 18°F, against a record low of 12.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.13 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Kenmore sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, SNOHOMISH CO (PAINE FD) AP, 11 miles from Kenmore.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 3,632 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $543 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 47 Mcf a year at 17.62 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $861 a year (electricity here runs 14.27¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 42.4 years; over 15 years the net position sits $1,273 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Kenmore, compared
Not every home in Kenmore has gas service. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. The saving here runs about $1,116 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 7.2 years.
How Kenmore compares nationally
Kenmore lands at position 1207 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1656 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Deciding what's next in Kenmore, WA
About 24,166 people live in Kenmore, Washington, 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.
Where Kenmore's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page — the 3.13 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. At a 18°F design temperature, Kenmore sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.