Heat Pump Payback in Shreveport, LA
Is a heat pump worth it in Shreveport?
Shreveport technically pencils out, but only past the point the equipment would need replacing anyway. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $5,500. Shreveport's residents would see roughly $309 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 17.8 years. Shreveport's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
Checking a different city
Shreveport is one of 3206 cities covered here, each run through the same model. Search another below.
The climate behind Shreveport's payback figure
Degree days tell the story here: Shreveport racks up 1468 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 3308 cooling degree days on the cooling side. The 99% winter design temperature here, the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average, is 23°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was 12.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.25 for the recommended cold-climate unit. The average winter here is gentle, but sizing follows the cold snaps, and 23°F is below the 25°F point where a standard unit leans on resistance backup, so a cold-climate unit is what gets priced for Shreveport. These numbers come from Shreveport Regional Airport, the closest NOAA station, 2.3 miles out.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 1,144 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $536 a year. That compares with roughly 15 Mcf a year of gas at Shreveport's $17.38 per-Mcf rate, about $845 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 13.52¢/kWh. Buying outright rather than at replacement time stretches payback to longer than the 15-year equipment life. Over 15 years, compared with a like-for-like replacement, the heat pump leaves you $859 behind.
How sensitive Shreveport's result is to prices
Because the heat pump's better air conditioning saves more electricity than its heating uses, it stays cheaper to run than the current furnace and AC in Shreveport at any electricity price. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $309 a year saved, a difference under $2,163 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,090 within 10.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Shreveport has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Shreveport's answer improves. Even against resistance heat, the running-cost gap here isn't enough to clear the $10,000 incremental cost within the equipment's 15-year life.
Shreveport against the rest of the country
Shreveport lands at position 2703 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 153 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
Next step if you live in Shreveport
About 176,578 people live in Shreveport, Louisiana, 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.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page, the 3.25 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. Shreveport's 23°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.