Will a heat pump pay off in Marion, IL?

Here in Marion, the honest answer is that a heat pump raises your annual running cost. $3,500 is what Marion 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. Unfortunately the electric bill outweighs the gas bill it replaces by about $80 a year here, so the extra spend stays unrecovered. There's no spin on that: Marion's numbers say wait.

The climate behind Marion's payback figure

Degree days tell the story here: Marion racks up 3600 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1463 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 3.2°F here (record low 1.2°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.78 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Marion 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. Source: NOAA station WILLIAMSON COUNTY RGNL APT, 3.4 miles from Marion — the closest one on record.

Marion's running-cost comparison, in dollars

A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 3,279 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $863 a year on electricity. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 37 Mcf a year at 11.25 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $783 a year (electricity here runs 19.06¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to beyond the 15-year equipment life; over 15 years the net position sits $4,693 behind.

Electric resistance heat in Marion, compared

Not every home in Marion 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 $1,236 a year comes back this way, enough that the 6.5-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.

How Marion compares nationally

Among 3206 cities, Marion's winter puts it at rank 1741 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2192 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

Next step for 17,021 people in Marion

About 17,021 people live in Marion, Illinois, 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.

Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.

Where Marion's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Marion's 2.78 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Marion's 3.2°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.