Heat Pump Payback in Siloam Springs, AR
Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Siloam Springs, AR
The payback math works in Siloam Springs on paper, past the equipment's own working life. $5,500 is what Siloam Springs would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again. Lower bills claw that back: about $326 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 16.9 years. Siloam Springs's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
Not the city you meant?
Siloam Springs is one of 3206 cities covered here, each run through the same model. Search another below.
The climate behind Siloam Springs's payback figure
2866 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Siloam Springs has a mild winter by US standards; the cooling side runs to 1728 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. The 99% winter design temperature here, the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average, is 1.9°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was -6°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.75 for the recommended cold-climate unit. The average winter here is gentle, but sizing follows the cold snaps, and 1.9°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 Siloam Springs. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Smith Field Airport, 2.2 miles from Siloam Springs.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 2,639 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $546 a year. Siloam Springs's gas rate of $19.25 per Mcf, applied to the 30 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $872 a year, against 13.28¢ 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 $612 behind.
What would change Siloam Springs's answer
This result holds unless electricity climbs above 30.7¢/kWh (it is 13.28¢ now) or gas drops below $8.33 per Mcf (now $19.25); past either point, gas becomes the cheaper fuel in Siloam Springs. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $326 a year saved, a difference under $2,282 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,260 within 10.
Electric resistance heat in Siloam Springs, compared
Plenty of homes in Siloam Springs heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Siloam Springs's answer improves. About $715 a year comes back this way, enough that the 14-year payback clears the $10,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Where Siloam Springs ranks in this dataset
Siloam Springs lands at position 1960 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1918 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Next step if you live in Siloam Springs
About 20,075 people live in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, 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.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Siloam Springs's 2.75 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Siloam Springs's 1.9°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.