Heat Pump Payback in Waupun, WI
Waupun, WI: the heat pump payback math
In Waupun, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. $5,500 is what Waupun would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again. Running costs here land $468 a year higher than the furnace it replaces, so that premium is never recovered. That's Waupun's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.
Compare against another city
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Waupun. Look one up here.
Waupun's weather, in the numbers that matter
Waupun has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment, 6257 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base, and summers add a moderate cooling load, at 454 cooling degree days. The 99% winter design temperature here, the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average, is -9°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was -11.6°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.48 for the recommended cold-climate unit. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Waupun, below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Dodge County Airport, 14.3 miles from Waupun.
Waupun's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 6,389 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,279 a year. That compares with roughly 65 Mcf a year of gas at Waupun's $10.74 per-Mcf rate, about $811 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 18.87¢/kWh. Because the heat pump costs more to run here, the gap only widens with time: $12,515 behind after 15 years compared with replacing the furnace and AC like-for-like.
How sensitive Waupun's result is to prices
For the verdict in Waupun to flip, electricity would need to drop to about 11.3¢/kWh from 18.87¢, or gas climb past $17.92 per Mcf from $10.74. A utility offering a lower heat pump rate can change this. Until then, no quote price makes a heat pump pay back against gas in Waupun; the case for one here rests on comfort, cooling, or replacing electric heat instead.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Plenty of homes in Waupun heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Against electric-resistance heat, baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance, the case for switching gets stronger here. The saving here runs about $1,822 a year, which recovers the extra $10,000 spent going electric in roughly 5.5 years.
Where Waupun ranks in this dataset
Waupun lands at position 131 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2961 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
Next step if you live in Waupun
Waupun, Wisconsin is home to about 11,131 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 Waupun, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page, the 2.48 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. Waupun's -9°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.