Heat Pump Payback in Lilburn, GA
Lilburn, GA: the heat pump payback math
Lilburn technically pencils out, but only past the point the equipment would need replacing anyway. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $5,500. Lilburn's residents would see roughly $344 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 16 years. That's a technicality, not a recommendation, for anyone actually living in Lilburn.
Checking a different city
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Lilburn. Look one up here.
Lilburn's weather, in the numbers that matter
Degree days tell the story here: Lilburn racks up 2569 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1846 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 12°F here (coldest 2024 reading 10.9°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.99 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Mild on average, but the occasional cold snap is what sizes the equipment: at a 12°F design temperature Lilburn falls just under the 25°F line where a standard heat pump starts leaning on resistance backup, so the model prices a cold-climate unit to be safe. These numbers come from Dekalb-Peachtree Airport, the closest NOAA station, 9.5 miles out.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 2,176 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $559 a year. Lilburn's gas rate of $20.42 per Mcf, applied to the 27 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $903 a year, against 14.90¢ per kWh for electricity. Buying outright rather than at replacement time stretches payback to longer than the 15-year equipment life. Over 15 years, compared with a like-for-like replacement, the heat pump leaves you $338 behind.
The break-even point in Lilburn
Gas would only overtake the heat pump in Lilburn if electricity rose past 40.3¢/kWh from 14.90¢, or gas fell under $7.56 per Mcf from $20.42. A useful quote test for Lilburn: the heat pump is worth it within a decade if it costs less than $3,440 more than replacing the furnace and AC, and within 7 years if the gap is under $2,408.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Lilburn has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Lilburn's answer improves. Switching saves about $767 a year here, a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils, so the extra $10,000 spent up front comes back in about 13 years.
Lilburn against the rest of the country
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Lilburn comes in at 2114 for heating severity, 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset, and 2276 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Lilburn
Lilburn, Georgia is home to about 16,210 people, and the figures above are the same ones a local HVAC contractor uses to size and quote a system, this site doesn't guess where a real quote would land, it just tells you whether it's worth asking for one. In Lilburn, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Reading further on this page's numbers
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Lilburn's 2.99 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Lilburn's 12°F design temperature is below the 25°F line, which is why a cold-climate unit is the right call here, see what that changes in the cold-climate unit guide.