Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Long Beach, NY
Here in Long Beach, the honest answer is that a heat pump raises your annual running cost. 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. The heat pump would cost about $72 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. There's no spin on that: Long Beach's numbers say wait.
Why Long Beach's climate drives this number
Degree days tell the story here: Long Beach racks up 4105 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1134 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 18°F here (record low 12°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.13 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Long Beach needs the cold-climate class of unit: past a 25°F design temperature a standard heat pump falls back on resistance backup often enough to eat the savings. These numbers come from JOHN F KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL, the closest NOAA station, 6.3 miles out.
The month-to-month numbers for Long Beach
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 3,321 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $1,253 a year. That compares with roughly 43 Mcf a year of gas at Long Beach's 17.58 per-Mcf rate — about $1,181 a year — against a local electricity rate of 29.22¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $4,578 behind.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Long Beach 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. About $2,214 a year comes back this way, enough that the 3.6-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Where Long Beach ranks in this dataset
Long Beach lands at position 1454 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1180 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Next step for 34,777 people in Long Beach
About 34,777 people live in Long Beach, New York, 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
Every constant behind this page — the 3.13 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. Long Beach's 18°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.