Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Pomona, CA

Pomona clears a genuine payback here, inside a reasonable stretch of years. $1,000 is what Pomona would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. Lower bills claw that back: about $251 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 4 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what Pomona actually pays for power and gas.

How cold Pomona actually gets

Pomona barely has a winter to speak of — 1219 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 1906 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 37.4°F here (record low 35.6°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.31 for the standard class of unit this climate calls for. Pomona's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. These numbers come from BRACKETT FIELD AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 3.1 miles out.

Pomona's running-cost comparison, in dollars

Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 933 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $840 a year. That compares with roughly 13 Mcf a year of gas at Pomona's 22.01 per-Mcf rate — about $1,090 a year — against a local electricity rate of 32.83¢/kWh. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 43.9 years, leaving the 15-year total $2,761 ahead.

If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas

Plenty of homes in Pomona heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Pomona's answer improves. The saving here runs about $985 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 5.6 years.

How Pomona compares nationally

Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Pomona comes in at 2787 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 188 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 147,966 people in Pomona

Pomona, California is home to about 147,966 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, Pomona 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

Every constant behind this page — the 3.31 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Pomona's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.