Should Maywood switch to a heat pump?

In Maywood, the math is close enough that it comes down to how long you plan to stay. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $1,000 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Lower bills claw that back: about $81 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 12.4 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Maywood's numbers don't point clearly either way.

Maywood's weather, in the numbers that matter

1268 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Maywood barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 622 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 44.1°F, against a record low of 44.1°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.51 for the recommended standard unit. Maywood's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, NRTHORP FLD/HATHRN MUNI AP, 9.5 miles from Maywood.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 915 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $474 a year. That compares with roughly 13 Mcf a year of gas at Maywood's 22.01 per-Mcf rate — about $555 a year — against a local electricity rate of 32.83¢/kWh. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 136 years; over 15 years the net position sits $213 ahead.

The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with

Not every home in Maywood has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $844 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 6.5 years.

How Maywood compares nationally

Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Maywood comes in at 2778 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 1667 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.

Deciding what's next in Maywood, CA

Maywood, California is home to about 23,838 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 Maywood, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.

Where Maywood's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Maywood's 3.51 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Homes in Maywood without gas service should read the electric-resistance comparison instead — the numbers there differ from the gas case above.