Heat Pump Payback in Martinsville, IN
Martinsville, IN: the heat pump payback math
In Martinsville, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $5,500. Running costs here land $91 a year higher than the furnace it replaces, so that premium is never recovered. There's no spin on that: Martinsville's numbers say wait.
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The climate behind Martinsville's payback figure
4101 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Martinsville has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1206 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: -2.9°F here (coldest 2024 reading -5.1°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.63 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Martinsville, below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Monroe County Airport, 21.8 miles from Martinsville.
Martinsville's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,948 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $848 a year. That compares with roughly 43 Mcf a year of gas at Martinsville's $11.49 per-Mcf rate, about $757 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 17.03¢/kWh. With running costs higher every year, there is no payback at any purchase price; over 15 years, against a like-for-like replacement, a household here would end $6,859 behind.
What would change Martinsville's answer
The heat pump would become the cheaper option in Martinsville if electricity fell to 14.4¢/kWh (from 17.03¢) or gas rose above $13.61 per Mcf (from $11.49). At today's prices a cheaper quote cannot rescue the gas comparison in Martinsville, since there is no yearly saving to recover it from.
Electric resistance heat in Martinsville, compared
Plenty of homes in Martinsville 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. About $1,187 a year comes back this way, enough that the 8.4-year payback clears the $10,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Martinsville against the rest of the country
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Martinsville comes in at 1459 for heating severity, 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset, and 2812 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Next step if you live in Martinsville
About 11,952 people live in Martinsville, Indiana, 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 Martinsville's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page, the 2.63 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. Martinsville's -2.9°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.