Electric Heat Pump for H.W. Check it Out

I currently have an oil fired hot water heater. I can't plumb out a coil from my stove to make hot water so I'm looking for an alternative to oil. I was wondering if anyone had opinions on using a heat pump for H.W. http://www.geappliances.com/heat-pump-hot-water-heater/

I live in NY and my electric rates are some of the highest in the country.

Looks neat! Looks expensive too. A heat pump using the heating side of the system to heat water would have to discharge the cooling coil to the basement. If your basement is already heated with your stove, I'd think the heat pump would even work better as the warm air will assist in thawing the condenser.

The heater is going for around 1300.00. There are tax rebates too. My basement is heated with a boiler and hot water baseboard heat. Our stove is on the 1st floor but also heats the 2nd floor too. We use the basement as a living area so we keep it heated to 71-73 degrees. I would like to maybe replace my oil fired hot water heater with electric and start to wean myself off oil. I really don't have any other alternatives short of a coal boiler which I don't have the room for.

Get rid of the oil hot water heater and the oil boiler and you have
plenty of room for a coal boiler. Add a DHW coil, you got it made.

One day I will want to sell this house and with only a coal boiler the bank may not give the nod. Also, the costs involved are pretty high. I only have 10 more years in this house.

traderfjp wrote:One day I will want to sell this house and with only a coal boiler the bank may not give the nod. Also, the costs involved are pretty high. I only have 10 more years in this house.

It may be a selling bonus to the new owners to have coal, as far as the bank, if it is up to code, what do they know if it passes inspection.

traderfjp wrote:We use the basement as a living area so we keep it heated to 71-73 degrees.

I don't know about you, but my cellar stays between 30 and 45 degrees most of the Winter. So there's not much excess heat there for a heat pump to capture. If you are heating your basement with oil to 73 degrees, it seems like the heat pump would be absorbing heat produced by your burning of oil, with the extra cost of the compressor's electricity added to your oil cost. It would be more efficient to just use a zone from your boiler to heat the domestic hot water directly. Summer might be a different story.

I finally ordered the GE Unit for 1,100.00

traderfjp wrote:I finally ordered the GE Unit for 1,100.00

Keep us posted on how it works out.

I installed that unit in my cellar last December and it has been doing the job nicely. There are two of us in the household now and we haven't run out of HW. I have a LL Econo in the unfinished cellar that I use to heat the house. It will be interesting to see how well it does when the weather turns warmer and the stove is out. Interesting, even though it replaced a LP tank I haven't seen any increase in my elec bill althought it must be there. The $500 credit on my taxes was nice too.

Do you run it in Hybrid mode or heat pump only mode. We use most of our hot water in the morning. My daughter takes a 15-20 minute shower and then my wife takes a 10 minute shower and 1 hour later I take a 10 minute shower. We are switching to 1.6gph shower heads. My boiler room is also always warm. Do you think the GE unit will keep un in heat pump mode. If not I may plump my bock oil fired unit in series. Not sure which tank to put first. The ge or Boch.

I am running in the E-heat mode (heat pump only). I anticipate switching to the hybrid mode when I shut the stove down and the cellar cools off. The stove was off for about a week and I noticed that the WH was running longer.

I have installed a few over the last few weeks for the company I work for. We are handling the AirTap units. The only ones I have installed are the add-on units for existing water heaters. From customer feedback they seem to work well. Recovery is slower than straight electric heating if two or three showers are in a row. Thinking since my water heater is right next to my coal stove I should get pretty good efficiency.

The one advantage of both AirTap units are that you can duct them into existing ductwork, a floor register, or outside (in the winter).

http://www.airgenerate.com

Most basements stay above freezing year round. Heat pump water heater will return about 3 units of hot water for every 1 part of electricity at 35F. 4 to 1 return at 55 or above. I know, I import and resell theses units. after about 50 installs, never yet an un -happy customer. Use your house heater for heating, a heatpump heater for domestic water. you will not be sorry. here is a comparison, a resistance electric water heater consumes 17 amps of 220 volts for about 13000 btu of delivered heat, a heat pump water heater consumes 3 amps of 220 volts to deliver the same btu's. I can ship a very good unit, 50 or 65 gallon capacity, 220volt, stainless steel holding tank, one of the few that use stainless. Paul.