Heat Pump Payback in Orem, UT
Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Orem, UT
Orem 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. Orem's residents would see roughly $50 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 109.1 years. That's a technicality, not a recommendation, for anyone actually living in Orem.
Checking a different city
Orem is one of 3206 cities covered here, each run through the same model. Search another below.
How cold Orem actually gets
Degree days tell the story here: Orem racks up 5203 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1246 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 12.9°F here (coldest 2024 reading 12°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.01 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Orem, below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Source: NOAA station Provo Municipal Airport, 5.6 miles from Orem, 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 4,377 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $714 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 54 Mcf a year at $10.19 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $764 a year including the old AC (electricity here runs 13.12¢/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 $4,744 behind.
What would change Orem's answer
Gas would only overtake the heat pump in Orem if electricity rose past 14.4¢/kWh from 13.12¢, or gas fell under $9.26 per Mcf from $10.19. A useful quote test for Orem: the heat pump is worth it within a decade if it costs less than $500 more than replacing the furnace and AC, and within 7 years if the gap is under $350.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Orem has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $1,227 a year, which recovers the extra $10,000 spent going electric in roughly 8.2 years.
How Orem compares nationally
Orem lands at position 558 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 353 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
Deciding what's next in Orem, UT
Orem, Utah is home to about 96,646 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 Orem, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Orem's 3.01 seasonal COP and payback figure. At a 12.9°F design temperature, Orem sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.