Does anyone have experience with heat pump water heaters? There are a couple units available now and they seem great---I just purchased one from Lowes (GE "hybrid" water heater), which has a 700 watt heat pump and 2 standard 4500 watt heating elements... the "brains" of the water heater let you select several operating modes: -heat pump only -heat pump with limited resistive backup -heat pump with maximum resistive backup -resistive heating only
The unit has a rated COP of 2.35, which should mean 2.35 kWh of heating for each kWh of electrical load (presumably in mode #2 or #1), and the DOE energy sticker shows the thing using ~1800 kWh per year, compared to standard tanks using ~5000 kWh/year. For the $1600 price, it seems like a no-brainer replacement for any regularly used electric tank heater--- and with this efficiency, I'm wondering how it might compete against the other hot water options: gas tank, propane, solar, tankless.... Rather than DHW solar, it now make more sense in many cases to just have a heat pump water heater + a few more PV modules.... all electric, and no solar hot water maintenance. /wk _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
