Heat Pump Payback in Swansea, IL
Should Swansea switch to a heat pump?
Here in Swansea, the honest answer is that a heat pump raises your annual running cost. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $5,500 more up front here. The heat pump would cost about $74 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces, a premium with no payback. There's no spin on that: Swansea's numbers say wait.
Not the city you meant?
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Swansea. Look one up here.
The climate behind Swansea's payback figure
Degree days tell the story here: Swansea racks up 3677 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1640 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 2.5°F here (coldest 2024 reading -3.8°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.76 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Swansea, 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 Scott Air Force Base/Midameri, the closest NOAA station, 7.4 miles out.
Swansea's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,373 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $909 a year. That compares with roughly 38 Mcf a year of gas at Swansea's $11.25 per-Mcf rate, about $836 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 19.06¢/kWh. With running costs higher every year, there is no payback at any purchase price; over 15 years, against a like-for-like replacement, a household here would end $6,604 behind.
The break-even point in Swansea
The heat pump would become the cheaper option in Swansea if electricity fell to 16.3¢/kWh (from 19.06¢) or gas rose above $13.17 per Mcf (from $11.25). At today's prices a cheaper quote cannot rescue the gas comparison in Swansea, since there is no yearly saving to recover it from.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Not every home in Swansea has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $1,270 a year, which recovers the extra $10,000 spent going electric in roughly 7.9 years.
How Swansea compares nationally
Swansea lands at position 1699 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2454 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Deciding what's next in Swansea, IL
About 14,445 people live in Swansea, Illinois, 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.
Where Swansea's figure comes from
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Swansea's 2.76 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Swansea's 2.5°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.