Saw this in the paper this morning. There is a lot of talk about tankless, gas, electric, now this. Anyone know if this is accurate or hype?
I'd have to know more about it to comment. On the tankless, we had one but were very thankful when we took it out. In theory they are great and can use less gas. The problem is when someone uses water, let's say to shower. Then the heater is off but when they go to the sink or someone else starts drawing water after just a couple minutes, you can actually get burned by the water!!!! What is left in the heater part as it shuts off gets really hot because everything there is hot. So naturally we learned quickly about this and took measures to keep the hands free of the water. But, we also had kids and sometimes guests. I just did not want someone getting badly burned by water.
Triple A Arsenal just put in something that looks similar, not sure if it's the same kind. There was another thread here and I think the Geosprings were liked there.
I believe they are a good idea. I have an instant water heater that is electric and it works very well. There was a thread a few months ago that was pretty interesting
When I saw "geospring" I was thinking ground source - which would be way more up front. There have been heat pump water heaters around for a while, just usually a separate package heat pump. They can provide dual benefit of dehumidifier in a basement setting.
FWIW Our electric bill went up $10-$15 a month when we installed a heat pump HW unit, we did not go with the GE unit.
That is a Heat Pump Water Heater, it uses a heat pump to help heat the water in hybrid mode. In a large demand situation it switches to regular electric mode. I did a good amount of research on that, I almost bought it 2 years ago. HPWH takes the heat from surrounding air and transfers it to water in an enclosed tank. Problem with that type of system if you live in a cold climate, it uses the air around the tank to heat. So if your tank is in a cold zone of the basement, that feature becomes useless. It needs hot air in, and let's cold air out. It's great in the summer! But the moisture might also be a concern in certain homes....the best home for these are anywhere but NORTH EAST. Of course you can use it, but normal price of $999 you would want to use that hybrid mode as much as you can. If you do the calculations living in a cold climate, you might never recoup the savings of spending double cost of a normal energy star hot water heater. Like others said, if you have the money, go with a Whole House on demand tankless. I wanted it, but my situation was an emergency and I couldn't order it. It was $899 I believe from HD.
I have an insulated blanket on my gas HWH in my basement. I can't say I have had any serious HW bills over $38, most being around $32 (ish). Granted there is only 2 of us but I don't think my hot water bill is out of control.
Our electric bill went down about ten dollars a month with the instant heater, but only two of us here like to get hot showers. the other two like cold baths
I bought a Geospring water heater in 2012. The old electric water heater sprung a leak. My electric bill went down about $20/month on average. I attribute most of that to the dehumidifier running less in the summer. Wintertime isn't an issue for me as the water heater isn't far from the pellet furnace, so the basement is always warm. Its always in hybrid mode. I had a problem with it three months after I bought it. I called GE, they asked what the error code was, sent the parts via Fed Ex and a tech showed up two days later. Haven't had a problem since.
You are cheating with that pellet furnace next to it lol. It's like your in FL, your situation works great for hybrid.
Can anyone inform me how you can heat water with surrounding air to higher than air temperatures? Let alone the part where your cooling the air(not exactly sounding that great in the winter) in turn spending more on re heating the air? I don't get the whole geothermal gig
This might help. you have seen a window air conditioner right. ok now take that same unit out of the window , carry it outside and put it back in the window with the cold air blowing out. Now the heat from the window unit is blowing in. thats a heat pump. instead of using a blower fan to remove the heat from the condenser, circulate water around the condenser and store the hot water in a tank thats a heat pump water heater. hope that helps . seems like a silly way to explain it but it gives you a picture in your mind how easy it works
Okay got that but what about in the winter when your trying to heat your house and your blowing cold air out? Aren't you shooting yourself in the foot or is this just a regional thing for southern states
