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Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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I was poking around in the hardware store over the weekend and found myself face-to-face with a heat-pump water heater. I had never seen or heard of one before and have become slightly intrigued by the idea.
It seems to me that SE Texas would be an ideal environment to run one of these, but I'm feeling like this would have a lot more moving parts and be a lot more maintenance intensive and unreliable than a gas fired water heater and would probably cost more to run in local electricity markets than I spend on natural gas.
In your climate, I can't imagine it costing more to run, unless you happen to have a gas well on your land. Think room air conditioner, running in reverse.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Well, I get that it's a reverse evaporator/compressor unit but even running the ultra-efficiency mode at 550W for 12 hours per day is only going to slightly outperform the gas water heater. GE seems to think that I'm looking at something like 13.4 kWh per day for a 2.6 occupant home, which would be something like $43/month on one of the most competitive electricity plans. In the summer months our total gas bill is usually $35 or less, most of that being the water heater.
You might be better off cobbling together a solar pre-heater then. Simplest form is an old hot water tank stripped of the jacket and insulation, and stuffed in a small box with one big window on the south side.
Try to catch this weekend's episode of Ask This Old House on PBS (weekend of Feb. 27-28); their coming attractions showed that the next episode will discuss these units.
I know lots of people that have thei elcetricr hot water heater as part of their heat pump system but none that actually have a heat pump water heater.It salways eher they do not have natural gas tho. Everyone I know that has natural gas has it as the water heater with their heat pump.More seem to be more interested in better heatign with their heat pump than anyhtign because fo the cost with electric supplment during cold months more than the water heater bill.
I have one installed in my garage - Rheem. I live in TX and the output being cold air is a good thing for my garage. In my climate according to EPA it is the most effecient means to heat my water. Payoff is about 4 years after tax rebate and electric company rebate.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joe123456
I have one installed in my garage - Rheem. I live in TX and the output being cold air is a good thing for my garage. In my climate according to EPA it is the most effecient means to heat my water. Payoff is about 4 years after tax rebate and electric company rebate.
This is what really drew me to the heat pump water heater. The idea of having a machine pulling hot air from the attic and exhausting cold air is intriguing. I have some considerable doubts that the unit would be able to keep up with the temperature runaways in the summer, but even a five degree reduction would probably have a measurable impact on my A/C bills.
Does the Rheem seem to keep up with your hot water demand? Has it needed any service? Does it run on 120V or 240V?
This is what really drew me to the heat pump water heater. The idea of having a machine pulling hot air from the attic and exhausting cold air is intriguing. I have some considerable doubts that the unit would be able to keep up with the temperature runaways in the summer, but even a five degree reduction would probably have a measurable impact on my A/C bills.
Does the Rheem seem to keep up with your hot water demand? Has it needed any service? Does it run on 120V or 240V?
240v just like the water heater it replaced. Although one consideration is how the plumbing is run to the unit. The unit it replaced had lines on top. The rheem has lines near the bottom....so the water heater had to be totally replumbed.
I don't know how feasible the unit is in the attic. However the 1st hour rating on the Rheem is 60+ gallons using a 50 gallon tank. No more than two showers in an hour...you have to wait for the tank to heat more hot water.
No service to date...just check and clean an air filter. Heatpumps usually last a long time 10 years. The warranty on the unit I believe is 8 years.
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Heatpump Water heater
