[MandoMan]

I’ve been reading an article in the June 2020 issue of “Fine Homebuilding” called “Choosing an Efficient Water Heater.” It says that 75% of new water heaters are purchased during a water heating emergency, and people often buy whatever is on the truck. However, the article says that if you have electric hot water heating, you should replace your water heater when it is NOT an emergency and replace it with a heat-pump water heater, made by several companies. (Emergency trucks don’t usually carry them.)

Why? Where a good regular electric water heater might turn 95% of the power it uses into heat, these heat-pump electric water heaters can get 345% of that power turned into heat because of the way heat-pumps work. The A.O. Smith water heater company estimates an electric bill of $198 a year for a 60 gallon heat-pump electric water heater, but $742 a year for a regular 60 gallon electric hot water heater. That’s a savings of $542 a year! (This is for a standard usage, water temperature, and electricity cost. Each home would of course vary.) Let’s say an installed regular electric tank costs $500 and an installed heat-pump electric hot water tank costs $2,000 installed. It would pay for itself in three years, and after that you are saving $542 a year, more or less.

As an extra incentive, these heat-pump electric water heaters suck heat out of hot air in your garage and blow out cooler air. Almost like an air-conditioner. So whenever your heater is heating water, it is cooling your garage, though that might only be an hour a day.

Have any of you tried them? What do you think?

[EdFNJ]

Never heard of that, Looks very interesting but seems a lot more expensive than $2K installed. Have you got any local price quotes on one? I'm seeing $2800 to $4000 installed depending on model just Googling around for "heat pump water heater." Not sure what/where those estimates are based on though.

Edit: Prices I was seeing were for 80gal units. 50 gals $2-$3000 installed.

[Toymeister]

I have heard of them and surprisingly MOST of the fiqures from the article are correct. Except two:

The cost to operate a conventional water heater and by extension the cost for the heat pump water heater.

The actual measured cost to operate a tanked heater in TV, at SECO rates is 13.00 to 16.00 a month.

That completely blows the economic argument away. If you want to know what appliances in your home cost to operate and not rely upon someone else's advice get Sense: Track energy use in real time to make your home more energy efficient.

[Paul Hoffman]

I have one, Only not in TV house!...Look for energy rebates from the electric company and possibly a tax credit. I swear by the water heater, they are efficient and do remove heat and humidity from the room and replace with cool air. When the unit in TV goes out a heat pump water heater will go in.

[Toymeister]

Oh while I am here I'll share how the article got the fiqures so wrong:

1: The incoming cold water in TV is higher than the assumed water temp.

2. You won't have four people in your home.

3. Your heater is in your garage and not in a basement.

4. Your electricity is lower than what they assumed.

Of course you can get the heat pump water heater. If you do OP come back and share your experience.

[Bay Kid]

Originally Posted by Paul Hoffman

I have one, Only not in TV house!...Look for energy rebates from the electric company and possibly a tax credit. I swear by the water heater, they are efficient and do remove heat and humidity from the room and replace with cool air. When the unit in TV goes out a heat pump water heater will go in.

Do they make any noise like a heat pump?

[leftyf]

We have had our heat pump water for about 5 years now. It is awesome. We saw an immediate $40 a month reduction in our electric bills. When our neighbor saw ours, he had one put in too and saw similar results. It does blow out cold air, but it only runs about 2 times a day and only for about 30 minutes each time. At the time, we got about $500 back in taxes, so our out of pocket cost was about $800, payback in less than 2 years. I installed it myself. Our old water heater was working just fine when I replaced it. I had to special order it and it took about 2 weeks to get it.

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

Never heard of that, Looks very interesting but seems a lot more expensive than $2K installed. Have you got any local price quotes on one? I'm seeing $2800 to $4000 installed depending on model just Googling around for "heat pump water heater." Not sure what/where those estimates are based on though.

Edit: Prices I was seeing were for 80gal units. 50 gals $2-$3000 installed.

I’m basing the price on the article. I don’t know what they might cost around here, installed. Installation prices for water heaters can vary sometimes if there is a difference in, say height between the old and the new.

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by Toymeister

Oh while I am here I'll share how the article got the fiqures so wrong:

1: The incoming cold water in TV is higher than the assumed water temp.

2. You won't have four people in your home.

3. Your heater is in your garage and not in a basement.

4. Your electricity is lower than what they assumed.

Of course you can get the heat pump water heater. If you do OP come back and share your experience.

Thanks. I was passing on information from a nationwide magazine and from the Department of Energy web site. I didn’t run the numbers for the climate zone. I realize that number of occupants and temperature of water going in and gallons of water heated and to what temperature matter a lot.

So your hot water is actually costing only $12 to $15 a month? In that case, there would be no need for this, and the dollar numbers on the yellow tags on appliances in stores are way off base. Again, thanks.

[billethkid]

Here is how the heat pump water heater works...in this case a Rheem sales piece:

How it Works: Rheem Prestige Series Hybrid Heat Pump Water Heaters - YouTube

[HiHoSteveO]

It's a very interesting design.

Here's a cost comparison video.
$1500 Heat Pump Water Heater - Worth it? - YouTube

And an "Ask this Old House" video on a Florida installation.
How to Install an Electric Heat Pump Water Heater | Ask This Old House - YouTube

A drawback it seems would be in houses that have the existing water heater in the conditioned airspace along with the HVAC air handler you would, I imagine, have to move it out into the garage itself. And I'm not so sure in reality how much garage cooling it would actually do for those interested in that aspect.

[Toymeister]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

Thanks. I was passing on information from a nationwide magazine and from the Department of Energy web site. I didn’t run the numbers for the climate zone. I realize that number of occupants and temperature of water going in and gallons of water heated and to what temperature matter a lot.

So your hot water is actually costing only $12 to $15 a month? In that case, there would be no need for this, and the dollar numbers on the yellow tags on appliances in stores are way off base. Again, thanks.

Those energy costs are for us, now if you take multiple showers, remove the flow restrictor on the shower head, wash your dishes with running how water then that would be a different case.

I have three water monitors with one just on the hot water line. I use between 553 and 874 gallons of hot water a month. Now let's take two fiqures 50.00 a month (to arrive at 40.00 a month savings) or my 15.00. at my water consumption rates I am spending 2.1 cents a gallon to heat it or do you think it is 7.1? Is it more likely that a guy that monitors these sorts of things or someone who looks a a bill once a month has got it down?

Or do this simple quasi scientific test. Buy a countertop hot plate. They use 1500 watts. If you place a one gallon pot of cold tap water on it and time it. If it takes 24 1/2 minutes to increase the temp to 120 degrees then I am completely wrong. 24 1/2 minutes because that is 7.1 cents of electricity. Now, the heating element isn't submerged and the pot isn't insulated but you get the idea.

Or just use this estimator (spoiler alert it is two cents a gallon) https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...PgLAybjF58cEI9

Finally, l'll use the fiqures of a frequent poster here who self identifies as frugal, to honor the forum rules no names. His annual bill is 1,800 for power. His May bill was 7X.XX for for 555 KwH. It is simply impossible to spend anything approaching 40.00 a month (341 KwH) to heat water.

So, how many gallons of hot water do you get for 50.00 with a standard water heater? 2,380. If you don't have a pool hot water is about 35% of your usage or a water bill for 6,800 gallons. Ask yourself what is your water bill.


Believe what you wish, puzzle me this though: is it cheaper to get a monitor for 300.00 to find out what that costs or spend over 2k and maybe be right?

All this said I am absolutely certain someone will tell me that I have it all wrong...

You are right, those yellow energy tags are only good for comparison not actuals and you simply cannot believe owners of a product as they want to feel great about their purchases.