Are heat pumps good in Texas?

Whether a heat pump is a good fit for your Texas home depends on the equipment's ratings, your energy rates and the rebates you can get. Weather data can tell you what the equipment has to handle. This guide uses NOAA's numbers for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, including the February 2021 freeze. It also covers federal and cold-climate heat pump standards, Texas energy prices and Austin Energy's rebates. Heating and cooling are a big part of the picture. Austin Energy says HVAC and water heating "account for two-thirds of a typical Texas home's energy use." This guide does not estimate operating costs.

Austin's climate normals at Austin-Bergstrom

NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for Austin-Bergstrom show 2,995.9 cooling degree days and 1,718.3 heating degree days a year. Cooling degree days are the larger of the two. The airport also averages 123.5 days a year at or above 90°F. In August, the normal average high is 97.0°F, with 613.7 cooling degree days for the month.

January has a normal average low of 37.7°F, a normal average high of 62.5°F and 469.5 heating degree days. In an average year, the airport sees 33.0 days with a low at or below 32°F and 0.0 days with a low at or below 10°F. These figures are 30-year averages for one station, so a single winter can differ from them.

How cold did Austin get in February 2021?

February 2021 was far colder than Austin's normals. NOAA's daily records for Austin-Bergstrom show a low of 9°F and a high of 23°F on February 15, 2021, with 6.1 inches of snow. On February 16, 2021, the low was 6°F and the high was 27°F.

NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) covered the storm of February 11–20, 2021 in a summary. It says, "It was the coldest winter storm for Texas since December 1989." It adds that "throughout central Texas, including Austin and Waco, six to nine consecutive days of freezing temperatures broke records for the longest freezing streak in the state's recorded history."

Federal minimum efficiency for heat pumps in Texas

Federal efficiency standards in 10 CFR 430.32 set the minimum for split-system heat pumps at 14.3 SEER2 and 7.5 HSPF2. The federal rule sets this floor, not the state. The same rule places Texas in its "Southeast" region. That region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma and several other states, plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

ENERGY STAR's Version 6.2 requirements call for split heat pumps to reach at least 15.2 SEER2, 11.0 EER2 and 7.8 HSPF2. Austin Energy's tier 1 heat pump rebate uses those same three numbers. As of October 2026, Austin Energy lists $650 for tier 1, $750 for tier 2 (16.0 SEER2, 11.0 EER2, 8.0 HSPF2) and $950 for tier 3 (17.0 SEER2, 13.0 EER2, 9.0 HSPF2). Our guide to Austin Energy HVAC rebates covers the contractor and eligibility rules.

Cold-climate heat pump standards and Austin's climate zone

ENERGY STAR and Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) both publish cold-climate criteria for air-source heat pumps. ENERGY STAR says that "to earn the Cold Climate designation, HPs must demonstrate low ambient performance…" One of its tests requires heating capacity at 5°F to be at least 70% of the unit's capacity at 47°F.

NEEP says its Version 4.0 specification "was designed to identify air source heat pumps that are best suited to heat efficiently in cold climates (IECC climate zone 4 and higher)." A Department of Energy county guide from August 2015 lists Travis County in IECC climate zone 2A. It also lists the county under Building America's "Hot-Humid" climate. That guide is more than five years old, and we did not check newer code editions. Under the 2015 assignment, Travis County falls below the zones NEEP targets.

We did not find a government or standards-body source that rates heat pump output at Austin's winter temperatures. We also found no Austin Energy page on running a heat pump in cold weather. A search of its site returned only rebate pages. Ask any contractor who quotes a heat pump for the model's rated capacity at low outdoor temperatures.

Texas electricity and natural gas prices

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports state averages. Texas's average residential electricity price was 15.88 cents per kilowatt-hour in July 2026, up from 15.36 cents in July 2025. The year-to-date figures were 16.06 cents for January through July 2026, compared with 15.20 cents for the same months of 2025.

For natural gas, Texas's average residential price was $19.42 per thousand cubic feet in 2025, up from $17.98 in 2024.

Electricity is priced per kilowatt-hour and gas per thousand cubic feet. We have not converted the two into a cost per unit of heat or an annual bill. They are statewide averages, not Austin Energy's rates or your gas utility's rates.

What to check before choosing a heat pump in Austin

Before you choose, ask whether the heat pump meets the federal minimum, or the higher ENERGY STAR and Austin Energy tier levels. Ask for its rated cold-weather numbers, and compare your own electric and gas rates. The climate data above show what the equipment will face in a normal year and in a winter like February 2021.