Heat pump Water Heater

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Auguste_Fivaz

Auguste_Fivaz

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  • #1
    My power company is promoting heat pump water heaters and offering incentives to retrofit. It is something I've been thinking about for a while so I contacted two companies listed on the power company's list looking for two bids on installing a SANCO2 (PDF) HPWH with a 43 gallon tank. The tank is indoors and the pump on the outside connected through the wall. I decided on the SANCO2 unit after reading horrible reviews about the RHEEM HPWH (can't find the link now) where review after review of early failures in the controllers and bad compressors triggering the emergency heating elements.

    So, while I wait for the bids to come in, I'm looking for any input from ARSians on this tech and hopefully some experiences.

    Added: The incentives are quite good, totaling $4,100.
     
    Auguste_Fivaz

    Auguste_Fivaz

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  • #2
    In 2013 we had our gas water heater replaced and we paid $1200 for it and the installation at that time. Today, to go with the new HPWH tech out there, we're looking at $8,500 for a RHEEM ProTerra HP system installed, which is basically the same style water heater with the heat pump added.
    The bids on the SANCO2 with an 80 gallon tank are coming in, 1 @ $11K and 2 @ $13K. This outlay is qualified for a number of programs allowing us to finance the project in addition to qualifying for the $4k in rebates. The power company offers a 0% interest, 100% principal loan ($10k cap) tied to our power company billing, but word is that may be running out of money at this time. The county offers an energy improvement loan at 6.7 % tied to the property taxes, payments amortized over 20 years. The state of California has a program which uses lenders to provide funds for projects at a few different interest points, these are more like personal loans with different qualifying parameters depending on the projects. None of this includes federal or state tax incentives which may apply when the project is complete.

    No one ever said going green was cheap.
     
    Defenestrar

    Defenestrar

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  • #3
    That's steep. But water heaters are a big user of residential energy though. At those prices you might want to consider a tankless option which removes the storage losses entirely. That could be very green if you have the opportunity to buy 100% renewable electric (it only costs us an extra penny per kWh - but we're in a good part of the country for it).

    You might also consider what other green things you could do with that money too. My wife and I talk about a lot of things (ground source heat pump, solar, etc…) but the lowest hanging fruit (among big ticket items) will be insulation. Properly insulating the 1940's portion of our house will require a remodel of each room with an exterior wall. Yuck.
     
    cogwheel

    cogwheel

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  • #4
    Defenestrar said:
    My wife and I talk about a lot of things (ground source heat pump, solar, etc…) but the lowest hanging fruit (among big ticket items) will be insulation. Properly insulating the 1940's portion of our house will require a remodel of each room with an exterior wall. Yuck.
    Click to expand...
    Hopefully you're looking at air sealing in addition to insulating, especially if you're looking at opening up the wall cavities to insulate (easy to seal at least the walls at the same time). Once you get past a pretty low insulation amount, air leakage starts to become a major energy loss pathway.
     
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    Auguste_Fivaz

    Auguste_Fivaz

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  • #5
    Yup - got insulated and got the geo-thermal heat pump thing going, got new windows, got new sliders, and guess what, I'm broke! :eek: This place is so tight, that we don't eat chili without a window open.
    The gas wh is the last big ticket thing to do. Weird, it isn't expensive to run over all, but it's the CO2, one last gasp and we'll turn off the gas at the meter, which also eliminates an earthquake hazard.
     
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    Auguste_Fivaz

    Auguste_Fivaz

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  • #6
    Well, don't 'ch know, today the zero %, $10K financing packages went broke at the power company. I literally missed out by one day. The company rep said to put the project on hold for the "time being" as they are trying to secure more funding. There are other options (aka gogreenfinancing.com) and at the county level, but they are not zero % 10 year contracts. Rats 🐀.
     
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    Flipper35

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  • #8
    Auguste_Fivaz said:
    Yup - got insulated and got the geo-thermal heat pump thing going, got new windows, got new sliders, and guess what, I'm broke! :eek: This place is so tight, that we don't eat chili without a window open.
    The gas wh is the last big ticket thing to do. Weird, it isn't expensive to run over all, but it's the CO2, one last gasp and we'll turn off the gas at the meter, which also eliminates an earthquake hazard.
    Click to expand...
    Odd, our geothermal heat pump puts waste heat in the water tank. Our is electric and only runs on days we have the windows open. The heat pump generally keeps the water temps at 131*f.
     
    Auguste_Fivaz

    Auguste_Fivaz

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  • #9
    Flipper35 said:
    Odd, our geothermal heat pump puts waste heat in the water tank. Our is electric and only runs on days we have the windows open. The heat pump generally keeps the water temps at 131*f.
    Click to expand...
    Ours did that, but we had an encounter with a plumber after a broken pipe who didn't quite understand how it worked. You remind me I need to have that fixed.
     
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