Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Lynnwood, WA
This one's marginal in Lynnwood: it only clears if you stay long enough. $3,500 is what Lynnwood would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. Lynnwood's residents would see roughly $318 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 11 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Lynnwood's numbers don't point clearly either way.
Lynnwood's weather, in the numbers that matter
Degree days tell the story here: Lynnwood racks up 4489 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers rarely ask much of an air conditioner, with 200 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 18°F here (record low 12.9°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.13 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Lynnwood 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, 5.5 miles from Lynnwood.
The month-to-month numbers for Lynnwood
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). Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 42.4 years, for a 15-year net position $1,273 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Lynnwood, compared
Plenty of homes in Lynnwood heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $1,116 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 7.2 years.
Lynnwood against the rest of the country
Lynnwood lands at position 1204 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 985 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Lynnwood
Lynnwood, Washington is home to about 41,597 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 Lynnwood, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
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. Lynnwood's 18°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.