Should Seymour switch to a heat pump?
In Seymour, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. $3,500 is what Seymour 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. The heat pump would cost about $42 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. There's no spin on that: Seymour's numbers say wait.
Why Seymour's climate drives this number
Seymour has a real but manageable winter — 4010 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 1483 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 1.4°F here (record low -5.8°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.73 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Seymour 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. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, COLUMBUS MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 22.1 miles from Seymour.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,719 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $849 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 42 Mcf a year at 11.49 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $807 a year (electricity here runs 17.03¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to beyond the 15-year equipment life; over 15 years the net position sits $4,124 behind.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Seymour 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. Switching saves about $1,208 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $8,000 spent up front comes back in about 6.6 years.
How Seymour compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Seymour's winter puts it at rank 1495 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1750 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 Seymour
About 22,524 people live in Seymour, Indiana, 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
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Seymour's 2.73 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Seymour's 1.4°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.