Heat Pump Payback in Myrtle Beach, SC
Should Myrtle Beach switch to a heat pump?
Myrtle Beach technically pencils out, but only past the point the equipment would need replacing anyway. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $5,500 more up front here. Lower bills claw that back: about $250 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 22 years. Myrtle Beach's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
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Why Myrtle Beach's climate drives this number
Myrtle Beach has a mild winter by US standards, 1740 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base, and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 2244 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 24.1°F here (coldest 2024 reading 19°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.28 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. The average winter here is gentle, but sizing follows the cold snaps, and 24.1°F is below the 25°F point where a standard unit leans on resistance backup, so a cold-climate unit is what gets priced for Myrtle Beach. Source: NOAA station Myrtle Beach International Airport, 3.3 miles from Myrtle Beach, the closest one on record.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 1,343 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $526 a year on electricity. That compares with roughly 18 Mcf a year of gas at Myrtle Beach's $16.91 per-Mcf rate, about $776 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 16.16¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase, with a working furnace ripped out early, payback would take longer than the 15-year equipment life. Measured against the like-for-like replacement instead, a household here ends 15 years $1,748 behind.
What would change Myrtle Beach's answer
This result holds unless electricity climbs above 88.0¢/kWh (it is 16.16¢ now) or gas drops below $3.11 per Mcf (now $16.91); past either point, gas becomes the cheaper fuel in Myrtle Beach. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $250 a year saved, a difference under $1,750 pays back within 7 years here, and under $2,500 within 10.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Myrtle Beach has gas service. Against electric-resistance heat, baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance, the case for switching gets stronger here. Even against resistance heat, the running-cost gap here isn't enough to clear the $10,000 incremental cost within the equipment's 15-year life.
Myrtle Beach against the rest of the country
Among 3206 cities, Myrtle Beach's winter puts it at rank 2565 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1015 for population, 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
Deciding what's next in Myrtle Beach, SC
About 40,535 people live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 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.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Myrtle Beach's 3.28 seasonal COP and payback figure. Myrtle Beach's 24.1°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.