Will a heat pump pay off in Richland, WA?
This one's marginal in Richland: it only clears if you stay long enough. $3,500 is what Richland 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. Richland's residents would see roughly $323 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 10.8 years. Whether that's worth it in Richland depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
Why Richland's climate drives this number
4148 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Richland has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1305 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 7.7°F, against a record low of 1°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.88 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Richland needs the cold-climate class of unit: past a 25°F design temperature a standard heat pump falls back on resistance backup often enough to eat the savings. Source: NOAA station RICHLAND AIRPORT, 1.4 miles from Richland — the closest one on record.
The month-to-month numbers for Richland
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,647 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $679 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 43 Mcf a year at 17.62 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $1,003 a year (electricity here runs 14.27¢/kWh). Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 41.8 years, leaving the 15-year total $1,350 ahead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Not every home in Richland has gas service. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. About $1,061 a year comes back this way, enough that the 7.5-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
How Richland compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Richland's winter puts it at rank 1430 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 610 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Richland
About 64,372 people live in Richland, 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.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
More on how this number was built
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Richland's 2.88 seasonal COP and payback figure. At a 7.7°F design temperature, Richland sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.