Heat Pump Payback in West Chicago, IL
Should West Chicago switch to a heat pump?
Here in West Chicago, the honest answer is that a heat pump raises your annual running cost. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $5,500. The heat pump would cost about $295 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces, a premium with no payback. There's no spin on that: West Chicago's numbers say wait.
Not the city you meant?
West Chicago is one of 3206 cities covered here, each run through the same model. Search another below.
The climate behind West Chicago's payback figure
Degree days tell the story here: West Chicago racks up 5064 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers add a moderate cooling load, with 915 cooling degree days on the cooling side. The 99% winter design temperature here, the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average, is -7.1°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was -14.1°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.53 for the recommended cold-climate unit. West Chicago needs the cold-climate class of unit: past a 25°F design temperature a standard heat pump falls back on resistance backup often enough to eat the savings. These numbers come from Dupage Airport, the closest NOAA station, 1.9 miles out.
The yearly running costs in West Chicago
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 5,068 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,115 a year. That compares with roughly 53 Mcf a year of gas at West Chicago's $11.25 per-Mcf rate, about $819 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 $9,930 behind.
What would change West Chicago's answer
The heat pump would become the cheaper option in West Chicago if electricity fell to 12.7¢/kWh (from 19.06¢) or gas rose above $16.85 per Mcf (from $11.25). At today's prices a cheaper quote cannot rescue the gas comparison in West Chicago, since there is no yearly saving to recover it from.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Plenty of homes in West Chicago heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. Switching saves about $1,555 a year here, a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils, so the extra $10,000 spent up front comes back in about 6.4 years.
West Chicago against the rest of the country
West Chicago lands at position 637 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1574 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 West Chicago
About 25,469 people live in West Chicago, 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.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Where West Chicago's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page, the 2.53 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. West Chicago's -7.1°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.