McAlester, OK: the heat pump payback math
In McAlester, the extra upfront cost technically comes back, just not before the equipment wears out. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,500 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Lower bills claw that back: about $210 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 16.6 years. That's a technicality, not a recommendation, for anyone actually living in McAlester.
How cold McAlester actually gets
McAlester has a mild winter by US standards — 2502 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 2360 cooling degree days. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 6.1°F, against a record low of 3.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.85 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, McAlester sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Source: NOAA station MC ALESTER REGIONAL ARPT, 3.1 miles from McAlester — the closest one on record.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 2,223 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $555 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 26 Mcf a year at 13.99 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $765 a year (electricity here runs 13.10¢/kWh). Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 64.2 years, for a 15-year net position $344 behind.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Plenty of homes in McAlester heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. The saving here runs about $676 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 11.8 years.
How McAlester compares nationally
McAlester lands at position 2180 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2084 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
Deciding what's next in McAlester, OK
McAlester, Oklahoma is home to about 18,108 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 McAlester, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page — the 2.85 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. McAlester's 6.1°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.