Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Tiffin, OH
In Tiffin, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. $3,500 is what Tiffin 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. The heat pump would cost about $8 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. There's no spin on that: Tiffin's numbers say wait.
The climate behind Tiffin's payback figure
4539 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Tiffin has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1240 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 3°F, against a record low of -2°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.77 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Tiffin sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. These numbers come from FINDLAY AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 26.5 miles out.
Tiffin's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 4,149 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $958 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 47 Mcf a year at 13.85 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $950 a year (electricity here runs 18.40¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to beyond the 15-year equipment life; over 15 years the net position sits $3,614 behind.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Not every home in Tiffin has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Tiffin's answer improves. About $1,452 a year comes back this way, enough that the 5.5-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Tiffin against the rest of the country
Among 3206 cities, Tiffin's winter puts it at rank 1183 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2122 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Tiffin
About 17,729 people live in Tiffin, Ohio, 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.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Reading further on this page's numbers
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Tiffin's 2.77 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. At a 3°F design temperature, Tiffin sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.