Should Mundelein switch to a heat pump?

In Mundelein, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. 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). Running costs here land $228 a year HIGHER than the furnace it replaces, so that premium is never recovered. That's Mundelein's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.

Mundelein's weather, in the numbers that matter

4991 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Mundelein has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1020 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: -0.9°F here (record low -11°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.68 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Mundelein 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 PALWAUKEE MUNICIPAL ARPT, 12 miles from Mundelein — the closest one on record.

The month-to-month numbers for Mundelein

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 4,716 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,065 a year. Mundelein's gas rate of 11.25 per Mcf, applied to the 52 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $837 a year, against 19.06¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $6,917 behind.

Electric resistance heat in Mundelein, compared

Plenty of homes in Mundelein 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. The saving here runs about $1,596 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 5 years.

Mundelein against the rest of the country

Among 3206 cities, Mundelein's winter puts it at rank 719 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1257 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.

What to do with this number in Mundelein

Mundelein, Illinois is home to about 32,641 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 Mundelein, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.

Where Mundelein's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Mundelein's 2.68 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Mundelein's -0.9°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.