Should Kennett switch to a heat pump?

This one's marginal in Kennett: 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). Lower bills claw that back: about $235 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 14.9 years. Whether that's worth it in Kennett depends on how many years you expect to own the place.

The climate behind Kennett's payback figure

2774 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Kennett has a mild winter by US standards; the cooling side runs to 1986 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 8.6°F, against a record low of 5°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.91 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Kennett sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. These numbers come from KENNETT MEM, the closest NOAA station, 1.1 miles out.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 2,414 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $527 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 29 Mcf a year at 14.94 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $762 a year (electricity here runs 12.83¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 57.5 years; over 15 years the net position sits $24 ahead.

Electric resistance heat in Kennett, compared

Gas isn't universal in Kennett — many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. About $704 a year comes back this way, enough that the 11.4-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.

Where Kennett ranks in this dataset

Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Kennett comes in at 2016 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 3172 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

Deciding what's next in Kennett, MO

About 10,137 people live in Kennett, Missouri, 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

Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Kennett's 2.91 seasonal COP and payback figure. At a 8.6°F design temperature, Kennett sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.