Should Pasco switch to a heat pump?

Pasco sits right on the fence — how long you'll own the house decides this one. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $3,500 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Pasco's residents would see roughly $308 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 11.3 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Pasco's numbers don't point clearly either way.

How cold Pasco actually gets

Pasco has a real but manageable winter — 4567 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 1113 cooling degree days. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 1.9°F, against a record low of 1.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.75 for the recommended cold-climate unit. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Pasco — below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, TRI-CITIES AIRPORT, 0.2 miles from Pasco.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 4,205 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $735 a year. That compares with roughly 48 Mcf a year of gas at Pasco's 17.62 per-Mcf rate — about $1,044 a year — against a local electricity rate of 14.27¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 43.8 years, for a 15-year net position $1,126 ahead.

If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas

Not every home in Pasco has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. About $1,121 a year comes back this way, enough that the 7.1-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.

How Pasco compares nationally

Among 3206 cities, Pasco's winter puts it at rank 1120 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 454 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

Next step for 81,724 people in Pasco

Pasco, Washington is home to about 81,724 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 Pasco, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.

Where Pasco's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Pasco's 2.75 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. At a 1.9°F design temperature, Pasco sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.