Heat Pump Payback in Savannah, GA
Should Savannah switch to a heat pump?
This one's marginal in Savannah: it only clears if you stay long enough. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,000 more up front here. Savannah's residents would see roughly $294 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 10.2 years. It's a genuine toss-up here, Savannah's numbers don't point clearly either way.
Checking a different city
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Savannah. Look one up here.
How cold Savannah actually gets
1252 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Savannah barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 2806 cooling degree days, where summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 26.4°F here (coldest 2024 reading 24.6°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.99 for the standard class of unit this climate calls for. Savannah's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium, a standard unit holds up fine. Source: NOAA station Hunter Army Airfield, 3.6 miles from Savannah, the closest one on record.
Savannah's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 1,060 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $514 a year. Savannah's gas rate of $20.42 per Mcf, applied to the 13 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $808 a year, against 14.90¢ per kWh for electricity. 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 $1,405 ahead.
What would change Savannah's answer
In Savannah the cooling savings outweigh the extra electricity for heating, so no plausible change in the electricity rate would make the old furnace and AC cheaper to run. A useful quote test for Savannah: the heat pump is worth it within a decade if it costs less than $2,940 more than replacing the furnace and AC, and within 7 years if the gap is under $2,058.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Gas isn't universal in Savannah, many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $500 a year, which recovers the extra $7,500 spent going electric in roughly 15 years.
Savannah against the rest of the country
Among 3206 cities, Savannah's winter puts it at rank 2781 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 185 for population, 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
What to do with this number in Savannah
Savannah, Georgia is home to about 148,808 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. In Savannah, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
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 Savannah's 2.99 seasonal COP and payback figure. Homes in Savannah without gas service should read the electric-resistance comparison instead, the numbers there differ from the gas case above.