Weirton, WV: the heat pump payback math
In Weirton, the extra upfront cost technically comes back, just not before the equipment wears out. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,500 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Lower bills claw that back: about $122 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 28.8 years. Weirton's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
The climate behind Weirton's payback figure
Weirton has a real but manageable winter — 4279 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 1149 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 9°F here (record low 7°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.92 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Weirton — below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Source: NOAA station WHEELING OHIO COUNTY ARPT, 16.5 miles from Weirton — the closest one on record.
The month-to-month numbers for Weirton
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 3,711 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $723 a year. Weirton's gas rate of 13.80 per Mcf, applied to the 45 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $844 a year, against 15.41¢ per kWh for electricity. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 110.9 years, leaving the 15-year total $1,675 behind.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Gas isn't universal in Weirton — many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $1,176 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 6.8 years.
Where Weirton ranks in this dataset
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Weirton comes in at 1353 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 2064 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Next step for 18,317 people in Weirton
About 18,317 people live in Weirton, West Virginia, 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.
Where Weirton's figure comes from
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Weirton's 2.92 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Weirton's 9°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.