Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Stonecrest, GA
This one's marginal in Stonecrest: it only clears if you stay long enough. $3,500 is what Stonecrest would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. Lower bills claw that back: about $344 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 10.2 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Stonecrest's numbers don't point clearly either way.
How cold Stonecrest actually gets
Stonecrest has a mild winter by US standards — 2569 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 1846 cooling degree days. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 12°F, against a record low of 10.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.99 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Stonecrest sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Source: NOAA station DEKALB-PEACHTREE AIRPORT, 16.2 miles from Stonecrest — the closest one on record.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 2,176 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $559 a year. That compares with roughly 27 Mcf a year of gas at Stonecrest's 20.42 per-Mcf rate — about $903 a year — against a local electricity rate of 14.90¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 39.2 years, for a 15-year net position $1,662 ahead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Gas isn't universal in Stonecrest — many houses run on electric heat already. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Stonecrest's answer improves. The saving here runs about $767 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 10.4 years.
How Stonecrest compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Stonecrest's winter puts it at rank 2106 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 655 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Next step for 61,015 people in Stonecrest
Stonecrest, Georgia is home to about 61,015 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 Stonecrest, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
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 Stonecrest's 2.99 seasonal COP and payback figure. Stonecrest's 12°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.