Green Living
KLF01
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
GE Electric Heat Pump Water Heater
in Green Living
Anyone have one? We have electric and are trying to find an energy efficient replacement for our very old water heater. These are expensive, so I wanted to hear about what people thought before we bite the bullet.
Re: GE Electric Heat Pump Water Heater
I don't have one but I understand how it works. Basically it is a combination electric water heater and heating only heat pump. A heating only heat pump is simply a refrigerator in reverse. It takes heat from the air around it and spits out cold air. It does a lot of additional work but refrigeration cycles are so efficient that it makes up for it and then some. Do you have a problem with adding more refrigerants to your house? (some EF people do) I assume they are using HFC refrigerants but still they can have some high GWP (global warming potential).
To help you out can you answer a few questions?
1) Where is your water heater currently located? In a conditioned or unconditioned space?
2) Are you in an area that has more heating or cooling months out of the year?
3) What size is your current water heater and does it keep up with demand? The GE Hybrid only comes in one size, 50 gallons.
4) How many people are in your house?
This will put out more noise than your current water heater, will take longer to heat up, and could require a larger electrical connection (their website says 240V 30amp!). Yes, it will save you a lot on your current water heating costs but so would a high efficiency water heater. We just replaced ours last year with a high efficiency one for $300. This costs $1700. And if you hire someone to install your new water heater the GE Hybrid will cost more to install. You should be able to get a federal tax credit on both water heaters at 30% of the product cost (not including installation).
Using their cost savings (which as an energy modeler I can tell you is over inflated) it would take you 4.4 years before you see any payback. If you're planning on staying put for a while that could pay off but you need to find out what actual tank material is made of. If it is the standard metal it will rust out before you get much savings out of it (the average life span is only 10-12 years). Hopefully, it is a fiberglass tank instead for that price! In which case they last much longer but the electric coils eventually go out on them. A common coil type only cost $15 (we were able to extend the life of ours by replacing the coils before it finally died).
Also, check out Rheem they have a very similar product and theirs might cost less because they don't spend millions advertising it on TV ads.
Sorry for the long post but I hope it helped.
1) Where is your water heater currently located? In a conditioned or unconditioned space? Unconditioned
2) Are you in an area that has more heating or cooling months out of the year? We are in PA, so we have hot summers, but other than that it is fairly cool, I guess.
3) What size is your current water heater and does it keep up with demand? The GE Hybrid only comes in one size, 50 gallons. Our current one is old way past 10-12 yrs and takes a while to heat up, so we have to run the water for a while to get it hot.
4) How many people are in your house? 2.5 (daughter is almost 1)
LOL glad I could help. I'm a mechanical engineer that designs HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems for a living so heat pumps are right up my alley. I actually have a ground source heat pump in my house (aka. geothermal). They have a pricey first cost but are extremely efficient. So for things like heating and cooling a whole house the paybacks are big but for small systems like hot water heating they take longer to payoff.
PA is considered a zone 5 (the continental US ranges from 1-7) so you have more heating months than cooling months. But the fact that your water heater is in an unconditioned space and is next to the furnace that isn't such a big deal. The hot water heater will make the room cooler but in the heating months the furnace will offset some of that by the heat it puts out.
For question 3 I meant how may gallons is your water heater now and do you run out of hot water frequently? If running out of hot water is a common problem for you and you have a similar sized tank (50 gallons) a hybrid system wouldn't be worth it to you. That's because a hybrid system benefits people who use their hot water sporadically where it has plenty of time to heat new water using the slower but more efficient heat pump. For example if you, your husband, and in the future your daughter all take morning showers or on the weekends you like to run your washer (on hot or warm) and your dishwasher at the same time the heat pump won't be able to keep up and the electric coil will turn on. If your electric coil is running more than the heat pump than you just have a very pricey electric water heater.
Well either way replacing your old water heater will be more efficient. High efficient electric water heaters are typically between 95-97% efficient. Your old one could be anywhere from 60-80% efficient. Electric water heaters are actually better than gas fired water heaters because gas fired water heaters need to be vented so they lose energy out of the vent. A heat pump though is over 100% efficient. The GE model uses the electric coil for 20 mins on start up and when hot water demand is high. But the rest of the day the heat pump would be running. Details here:
http://products.geappliances.com/MarketingObjectRetrieval/Dispatcher?RequestType=PDF&Name=380107_geh50dn_r4.pdf
Like I said before our 97% efficient electric water heater cost $300. Our old one was between 12-15 years old and broke down the same day we had company staying at our house. We just went down to the hardware store and bought the most efficient thing they had. But if we had had more time I would have liked to consider getting a fiberglass tank instead to reduce waste. I think they are in the $800 range for the high efficiency models. So that could be another option at half the price of the GE model. Ha ha just what you need more options huh?
No problem. Let me/us know what you guys end up getting and how it works out for you. I try to check in on this board every once and a while though I don't post much.