Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Smithfield, UT
Smithfield is a place where a heat pump genuinely costs more to operate than the alternative. 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). The heat pump would cost about $49 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. That's Smithfield's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.
Smithfield's weather, in the numbers that matter
6351 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Smithfield has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment; the cooling side runs to 765 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 1.9°F, against a record low of -15°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.75 for the recommended cold-climate unit. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Smithfield — below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. These numbers come from LOGAN-CACHE AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 3.6 miles out.
The month-to-month numbers for Smithfield
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 5,848 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $853 a year. That compares with roughly 66 Mcf a year of gas at Smithfield's 10.19 per-Mcf rate — about $804 a year — against a local electricity rate of 13.12¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $4,231 behind.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Not every home in Smithfield has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. Switching saves about $1,387 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 5.8 years.
How Smithfield compares nationally
Smithfield lands at position 109 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2393 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
Next step for 15,018 people in Smithfield
Smithfield, Utah is home to about 15,018 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 Smithfield, 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
Every constant behind this page — the 2.75 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. Smithfield's 1.9°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.