Rockledge, FL: the heat pump payback math
In Rockledge, a heat pump pays for itself within a reasonable window. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $1,000 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Lower bills claw that back: about $303 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 3.3 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what Rockledge actually pays for power and gas.
Rockledge's weather, in the numbers that matter
217 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Rockledge barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 3921 cooling degree days, where summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 50°F, against a record low of 44.8°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.69 for the recommended standard unit. Rockledge's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. Source: NOAA station PATRICK AFB AIRPORT, 10.4 miles from Rockledge — the closest one on record.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 149 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $539 a year. That compares with roughly 2 Mcf a year of gas at Rockledge's 25.48 per-Mcf rate — about $842 a year — against a local electricity rate of 15.43¢/kWh. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 36.3 years; over 15 years the net position sits $3,543 ahead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Gas isn't universal in Rockledge — many houses run on electric heat already. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Rockledge's answer improves. Switching saves about $330 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $5,500 spent up front comes back in about 16.7 years.
Rockledge against the rest of the country
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Rockledge comes in at 3129 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 1303 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.
Deciding what's next in Rockledge, FL
Rockledge, Florida is home to about 31,429 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, Rockledge 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.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Rockledge's 3.69 seasonal COP and payback figure. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Rockledge's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.