Should Wixom switch to a heat pump?
In Wixom, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. 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. The heat pump would cost about $360 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. That's Wixom's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.
How cold Wixom actually gets
Wixom has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment — 5409 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers add a moderate cooling load, at 739 cooling degree days. 1°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of -5.8°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 2.72 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Wixom sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. These numbers come from OAKLAND CO. INTNL AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 11.4 miles out.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 5,035 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,174 a year. Wixom's gas rate of 10.92 per Mcf, applied to the 56 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $814 a year, against 20.72¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $8,904 behind.
Electric resistance heat in Wixom, compared
Not every home in Wixom has gas service. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. Switching saves about $1,862 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $8,000 spent up front comes back in about 4.3 years.
Wixom against the rest of the country
Among 3206 cities, Wixom's winter puts it at rank 425 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2141 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
What to do with this number in Wixom
Wixom, Michigan is home to about 17,486 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 Wixom, 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
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Wixom's 2.72 seasonal COP and payback figure. At a 1°F design temperature, Wixom sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.