Is a heat pump worth it in New Orleans?
New Orleans clears a genuine payback here, inside a reasonable stretch of years. 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). New Orleans's residents would see roughly $297 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 3.4 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what New Orleans actually pays for power and gas.
New Orleans's weather, in the numbers that matter
Degree days tell the story here: New Orleans racks up 746 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 4030 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 33.1°F here (record low 26.1°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.19 for the standard class of unit this climate calls for. New Orleans's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. These numbers come from LAKEFRONT AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 5.7 miles out.
New Orleans's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 592 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $545 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 8 Mcf a year at 17.38 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $841 a year (electricity here runs 13.52¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 37.1 years; over 15 years the net position sits $3,448 ahead.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in New Orleans 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. About $417 a year comes back this way, enough that the 13.2-year payback clears the $5,500 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
New Orleans against the rest of the country
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, New Orleans comes in at 2982 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 54 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.
Next step for 362,701 people in New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana is home to about 362,701 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. Given the math above, New Orleans is a place worth lining up quotes ahead of a breakdown, not waiting for one.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide walks through exactly how New Orleans's 3.19 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. The $2,000 federal credit baked into New Orleans's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.