Hot water cost

Yes if your heating the house with a heat pump in a cold climate they are less efficient but this is a water heater sitting inside your home. it is picking up room temp air and extracting the heat out of it to make hot water thus cooling the room air slightly

 

it may take a few hours to heat the water this way . HPWH (heat pump water heaters) are a hybrid system. if you need more hot water or quick recovery the electric elements kick on to speed things up

 

Unlimited

 

The heat pump water heaters seem like a great idea in theory but there are a lot of parts to go bad on them. Coming from a guy who does HVAC I would be very Leary that the initial cost saving wouldn't t hold up in the long run.

 

I should add that we weren't heating the water with electricity prior the the HPHW, so the $10-$15 a month increase in the electric bill is how much it's costs total to run the HPHW per month.

I live in Maine, and my HPHWH (stiebel Eltron) is in my basement and it does fine. I do heat my basement though. Total cost to heat the water per month is never more than $15. My unit is not a hybrid like the GE, it does have a resistive booster but it never kicks on. It has a large (80G) super insulated tank, so I set the temp very high, 170f and use a mixer valve to supply 115f to the house, also if you plumb in at least a 24" drop you won't be constantly losing heat from the tank due to heat siphoning.

 

I have a Geospring since 2012 and it works really well in my situation and uses about half the electricity of a conventional electric hot water tank, but here's the catch, it really depends on your specific situation as to if you will like it or not.

- it expels cold air and needs a reasonably large space to be located in. If you have a small enclosed room, it won't work well, a warm basement or something similar would be ideal.

- the recovery time is slow in heat pump mode. It does have traditional heating elements so it can be set to use those when needed, but we find the slow recovery time is not an issue, we just are aware of it.

- yes, it does counteract energy used for heating your home if you have it in a heated part of the home versus your basement etc..it will also help cool and dehumidify your home when running your air conditioner. I heat with wood, so I my firewood now helps heat my water. You can always use it in the standard electric resistant setting if you don't want the heat pump running. No noise or cold air expelled when operated like this.

- you need a condensate drain for the heat pump since its removing water from the air when operating in HP mode.

- it makes noise in heat pump mode, similar to a small window air conditioners or dehumidifier.

I bought mine for $899.00 At Lowes and our electric company, AEP, has a $500 rebate on top of that, so $399 plus tax. Can't beat the price for a well insulated tank that can operate in both heat pump mode or standard electric resistance. Mine has already paid for itself.

I think it can make sense if you don't have natural gas available to you . You also need the right location to locate it, this is critical to your satisfaction. I have mine in a utility room. We leave the door to that room open and it does dehumidify and cool our home slightly.
It really does use half the electricity if it has reasonably warm air to draw from, but it's not for everyone.

This guy does a good explanation.

 

Yeah you need to have the correct conditions, especially a heated room where the tank is or it's not ideal.
fanatical1 explains it must be the right situation.

 

Have you ever seen a cabinet cooler?? Google Vortex tube. I am not sure how similar the technology is but it basically splits air into a hot and cold. There's a lot of cool stuff people have figured out.

 

That was a concern I had also. When I bought mine, Lowes was offering a 10 year warranty for $99. I bought the warranty, figuring that I'd get that money back at some point in 10 years.

 

That's what I was thinking. I you heat with electric, are you gaining efficiency (in the winter)?

The Energyguide label appears to show that it will only save you $44 a year compared to the least efficient similar model.?
http://pdf.lowes.com/energyguides/084691228998.pdf

 

If you heat with electric you'll lose efficiency.
It's the same for anyone heating with electric - going to a more efficient appliance or CFL's & LEDS you're no longer putting off the wasted heat at the appliance and your heat source if baseboard electric, central air heating element etc. has to make up for the difference.

 

The PDF you posted is for similar heat pump hot water heaters.
A 5ogal standard hot water heater runs $554-586 http://pdf.lowes.com/energyguides/035505862754.pdf

 

That makes more sense.

 

Your correct that some/most of the savings will be lost in your situation during the winter months if you use electricity to heat your home and you locate it in an area of your home that you heat versus an unheated basement. I use firewood to heat my home, so my situation is different. The warmer the surrounding air is, the more efficient a heat pump becomes in removing the heat from the air around it. This situation is slightly offset during the summer months because your HP will aid your air conditioner in cooling and removing moisture from the air.

The energy guide you show is comparing the Geospring to other heat pump hot water manufacturers, not to a standard electric resistant hot water tank. A traditional electric tank for a family of 4 uses just over 5,000 KWH/year so your saving roughly $300.00/year or more depending on what you pay per KWH for electricity.

 

Me too, 100% . Just forming a question, but thanks for the response.