Heat Pump Payback in Port Angeles, WA
Should Port Angeles switch to a heat pump?
In Port Angeles, the math is close enough that it comes down to how long you plan to stay. $5,500 is what Port Angeles would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again. That premium is recovered through $394 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 14 years. Whether that's worth it in Port Angeles depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
Checking a different city
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Port Angeles. Look one up here.
Why Port Angeles's climate drives this number
5438 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Port Angeles has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment; the cooling side runs to 4 cooling degree days, where summers rarely ask much of an air conditioner. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 23°F here (coldest 2024 reading 13.5°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.25 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Port Angeles sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. These numbers come from Port Angeles, the closest NOAA station, 0.5 miles out.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 4,237 kWh a year to keep it warm, for an electric bill near $605 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 57 Mcf a year at $17.62 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $999 a year including the old AC (electricity here runs 14.27¢/kWh). If the current system still worked and you replaced it anyway, the full cost would take longer than the 15-year equipment life to earn back; against buying a new furnace and AC regardless, the 15-year total lands $403 ahead.
How sensitive Port Angeles's result is to prices
This result holds unless electricity climbs above 23.6¢/kWh (it is 14.27¢ now) or gas drops below $10.67 per Mcf (now $17.62); past either point, gas becomes the cheaper fuel in Port Angeles. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $394 a year saved, a difference under $2,758 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,940 within 10.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Not every home in Port Angeles has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Port Angeles's answer improves. About $1,361 a year comes back this way, enough that the 7.3-year payback clears the $10,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Port Angeles against the rest of the country
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Port Angeles comes in at 413 for heating severity, 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset, and 1913 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
What to do with this number in Port Angeles
About 20,112 people live in Port Angeles, Washington, 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.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
More on how this number was built
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Port Angeles's 3.25 seasonal COP and payback figure. Port Angeles's 23°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.