McComb, MS: the heat pump payback math
McComb sits right on the fence — how long you'll own the house decides this one. 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 $253 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 13.9 years. Whether that's worth it in McComb depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
The climate behind McComb's payback figure
Degree days tell the story here: McComb racks up 1651 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 2414 cooling degree days on the cooling side. 23°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of 12°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.25 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, McComb sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, MCOM/PIKE CO/J E LWS FD AP, 4.2 miles from McComb.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 1,286 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $517 a year. McComb's gas rate of 16.64 per Mcf, applied to the 17 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $770 a year, against 15.47¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 53.4 years, for a 15-year net position $290 ahead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Plenty of homes in McComb 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. About $613 a year comes back this way, enough that the 13-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Where McComb ranks in this dataset
McComb lands at position 2622 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2848 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.
Next step for 11,762 people in McComb
About 11,762 people live in McComb, Mississippi, 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.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Where McComb's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page — the 3.25 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. McComb's 23°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.