Texarkana, TX: the heat pump payback math
Texarkana sits right on the fence — how long you'll own the house decides this one. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $3,500 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Lower bills claw that back: about $343 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 10.2 years. Whether that's worth it in Texarkana depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
The climate behind Texarkana's payback figure
Texarkana has a mild winter by US standards — 1769 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 3023 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 18°F here (record low 10.9°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.13 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Texarkana — 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 TEXARKANA REGIONAL AIRPORT-WE, the closest NOAA station, 5.6 miles out.
Texarkana's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 1,431 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $647 a year. That compares with roughly 18 Mcf a year of gas at Texarkana's 19.42 per-Mcf rate — about $991 a year — against a local electricity rate of 16.15¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 39.3 years, for a 15-year net position $1,647 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Texarkana, compared
Not every home in Texarkana has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. About $709 a year comes back this way, enough that the 11.3-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Where Texarkana ranks in this dataset
Among 3206 cities, Texarkana's winter puts it at rank 2553 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1146 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
Next step for 35,971 people in Texarkana
About 35,971 people live in Texarkana, Texas, 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.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Texarkana's 3.13 seasonal COP and payback figure. At a 18°F design temperature, Texarkana sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.