Sulphur, LA: the heat pump payback math
A heat pump earns back its extra cost in Sulphur within a sensible timeframe. $1,000 is what Sulphur 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 $259 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 3.9 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what Sulphur actually pays for power and gas.
How cold Sulphur actually gets
Degree days tell the story here: Sulphur racks up 941 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 3205 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 30.4°F, against a record low of 19.4°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.11 for the recommended standard unit. Sulphur's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. These numbers come from SOUTHLAND FIELD AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 6.9 miles out.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 766 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $473 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 10 Mcf a year at 17.38 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $732 a year (electricity here runs 13.52¢/kWh). Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 42.5 years, for a 15-year net position $2,883 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Sulphur, compared
Not every home in Sulphur has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Sulphur's answer improves. The saving here runs about $411 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 13.4 years.
Where Sulphur ranks in this dataset
Sulphur lands at position 2932 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1880 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.
Deciding what's next in Sulphur, LA
Sulphur, Louisiana is home to about 20,572 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. Given the math above, Sulphur is a place worth lining up quotes ahead of a breakdown, not waiting for one.
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 Sulphur's 3.11 seasonal COP and payback figure. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Sulphur's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.