Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Sherwood, AR
In Sherwood, the math is close enough that it comes down to how long you plan to stay. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,500 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Sherwood's residents would see roughly $359 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 9.8 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Sherwood's numbers don't point clearly either way.
How cold Sherwood actually gets
Degree days tell the story here: Sherwood racks up 2606 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 2216 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 11.8°F here (record low -2.6°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.98 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Sherwood 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 LITTLE ROCK AFB AIRPORT, 5.4 miles from Sherwood — the closest one on record.
Sherwood's running-cost comparison, in dollars
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 2,214 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $545 a year on electricity. That compares with roughly 27 Mcf a year of gas at Sherwood's 19.25 per-Mcf rate — about $904 a year — against a local electricity rate of 13.28¢/kWh. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 37.6 years; over 15 years the net position sits $1,883 ahead.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Gas isn't universal in Sherwood — many houses run on electric heat already. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. The saving here runs about $713 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 11.2 years.
Where Sherwood ranks in this dataset
Among 3206 cities, Sherwood's winter puts it at rank 2095 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1233 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 Sherwood
Sherwood, Arkansas is home to about 33,281 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 Sherwood, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
More on how this number was built
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Sherwood's 2.98 seasonal COP and payback figure. Sherwood's 11.8°F design temperature is below the 25°F line, which is why a cold-climate unit is the right call here — see what that changes in the cold-climate unit guide.