Heat Pump Payback in Spokane, WA
Will a heat pump pay off in Spokane, WA?
Spokane 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. Spokane's residents would see roughly $311 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 17.7 years. Spokane's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
Not the city you meant?
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Spokane. Look one up here.
Why Spokane's climate drives this number
5519 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Spokane has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment; the cooling side runs to 804 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: -2°F here (coldest 2024 reading -8°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.65 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Spokane sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Felts Field Airport, 5.3 miles from Spokane.
The yearly running costs in Spokane
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 5,274 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $850 a year. Spokane's gas rate of $17.62 per Mcf, applied to the 57 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $1,161 a year, against 14.27¢ 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 $833 behind.
The break-even point in Spokane
This result holds unless electricity climbs above 20.6¢/kWh (it is 14.27¢ now) or gas drops below $12.21 per Mcf (now $17.62); past either point, gas becomes the cheaper fuel in Spokane. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $311 a year saved, a difference under $2,177 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,110 within 10.
Electric resistance heat in Spokane, compared
Not every home in Spokane 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. About $1,293 a year comes back this way, enough that the 7.7-year payback clears the $10,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
How Spokane compares nationally
Spokane lands at position 361 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 101 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 if you live in Spokane
About 230,609 people live in Spokane, Washington, 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.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
More on how this number was built
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Spokane's 2.65 seasonal COP and payback figure. Spokane's -2°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.