[MandoMan]

I’ve been reading an article in the June 2020 issue of “Fine Homebuilding” called “Choosing an Efficient Water Heater.” It says that 75% of new water heaters are purchased during a water heating emergency, and people often buy whatever is on the truck. However, the article says that if you have electric hot water heating, you should replace your water heater when it is NOT an emergency and replace it with a heat-pump water heater, made by several companies. (Emergency trucks don’t usually carry them.)

Why? Where a good regular electric water heater might turn 95% of the power it uses into heat, these heat-pump electric water heaters can get 345% of that power turned into heat because of the way heat-pumps work. The A.O. Smith water heater company estimates an electric bill of $198 a year for a 60 gallon heat-pump electric water heater, but $742 a year for a regular 60 gallon electric hot water heater. That’s a savings of $542 a year! (This is for a standard usage, water temperature, and electricity cost. Each home would of course vary.) Let’s say an installed regular electric tank costs $500 and an installed heat-pump electric hot water tank costs $2,000 installed. It would pay for itself in three years, and after that you are saving $542 a year, more or less.

As an extra incentive, these heat-pump electric water heaters suck heat out of hot air in your garage and blow out cooler air. Almost like an air-conditioner. So whenever your heater is heating water, it is cooling your garage, though that might only be an hour a day.

Have any of you tried them? What do you think?