Heat Pump Payback in Redmond, WA
Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Redmond, WA
The payback math works in Redmond on paper, past the equipment's own working life. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $5,500 more up front here. That premium is recovered through $311 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 17.7 years. Redmond's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
Not the city you meant?
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Redmond. Look one up here.
Why Redmond's climate drives this number
4232 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Redmond has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 365 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. 18°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here, the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day, with a low of 14°F in the 2024 station record. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.13 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Redmond sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Boeing Fld/King Co International AP, 13.4 miles from Redmond.
Redmond's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,424 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $533 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 44 Mcf a year at $17.62 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $844 a year including the old AC (electricity here runs 14.27¢/kWh). Buying outright rather than at replacement time stretches payback to longer than the 15-year equipment life. Over 15 years, compared with a like-for-like replacement, the heat pump leaves you $833 behind.
How sensitive Redmond's result is to prices
This result holds unless electricity climbs above 23.8¢/kWh (it is 14.27¢ now) or gas drops below $10.56 per Mcf (now $17.62); past either point, gas becomes the cheaper fuel in Redmond. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $311 a year saved, a difference under $2,177 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,110 within 10.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Plenty of homes in Redmond heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Against electric-resistance heat, baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance, the case for switching gets stronger here. About $1,064 a year comes back this way, enough that the 9.4-year payback clears the $10,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
How Redmond compares nationally
Redmond lands at position 1390 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 451 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Redmond
About 82,195 people live in Redmond, 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.
Where Redmond's figure comes from
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Redmond's 3.13 seasonal COP and payback figure. Redmond's 18°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.