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HWHP consider
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I have been considering one for a while now. Concerns I have, maybe you can comment?
- I would need to install a condensate pump as the unit would be in the basement below my septic outlet. Can be done but just another thing that will break.....
- It will make my basement colder in the winter. As it is now my basement gets down to 45-50 F in the winter which will reduce the effectiveness of the heat pump. I also like to work down there so I may need some temporary heating..... (fire up the oil burner....lol)
Yes if you don’t have a drain you need a pump. We have a macerating toilet pump.
Yes it will make you basement cooler. The amount depends on how much hot water you use. We heat our basement as its living space. The room where the water heater is has a mechanical space. It’s a small bedroom but the kids keep the door open. I have it ducted to intake near the ceiling and exhaust blowing down to the floor. In hybrid mode it will kick on the electric elements. This never happens in the summer as the intel temps are high. It happens in the winter quite a bit. It’s an 80 gallon unit and we are a family of 7.
Basement has 17’ glass garage door. It can easily hit 55 if we don’t heat it.
We had resistive electric before. Cost is about 30% less. Now we have solar.
If I had oil and my tank was over 15 years old I would be ditching oil completely and removing the tank. If it’s newer I’d probably keep it as backup.
It is easily the fastest ROI for any energy efficiency improvement you can make. I don’t know that the tax credit situation is now.
Yes it will make you basement cooler. The amount depends on how much hot water you use. We heat our basement as its living space. The room where the water heater is has a mechanical space. It’s a small bedroom but the kids keep the door open. I have it ducted to intake near the ceiling and exhaust blowing down to the floor. In hybrid mode it will kick on the electric elements. This never happens in the summer as the intel temps are high. It happens in the winter quite a bit. It’s an 80 gallon unit and we are a family of 7.
Basement has 17’ glass garage door. It can easily hit 55 if we don’t heat it.
We had resistive electric before. Cost is about 30% less. Now we have solar.
If I had oil and my tank was over 15 years old I would be ditching oil completely and removing the tank. If it’s newer I’d probably keep it as backup.
It is easily the fastest ROI for any energy efficiency improvement you can make. I don’t know that the tax credit situation is now.
Family of 7.... God bless. We had 2 and that was enough.
Thanks for the info, very useful. I have been wondering if I go solar and the system is sized to provide 100% is it just easier to go with electric resistive.... Cheaper initial cost, easier to install, warms the basement..
Well… I haven’t done the math to see if more solar is cheaper than HPWH. It probably all depends on how your net metering works. We work on a monthly basis. I get paid for excess sent to the grid each billing cycle. At a 10kw array making about 12Mwh a year with an EV driving a lot I use more than I produce a year. 10kw was as big as I could get permitted by utility for.
So the question is how soon do you do solar? With the federal tax credits ending soon my guess is you’re looking at 3 years out of every. So what’s the ROI on based on oil and electricity prices. I think I was about 4 years to break even.
12 Mwhr / year is a pretty good sized system. We do not use nearly that much, but we also use gasoline / oil and only 3 of us right now. Not sure what the net metering rules are in CT. I know in some states they only pay the wholesale generation rate for net outflows, which is a lot lower than the residential rate we pay. I got to run the numbers and see. My timing is not good as the fed credits are about to expire, I am sure all the contractors are overloaded with orders right now. Will be curious to see how the market changes next year, I am sure some will cease to exist. Would not be surprised to see pricing come down as they all compete at market rates, but we shall see....
I need to do a new roof in the next couple years anyway..... so I can wait and see what happens.
Labor rates probably won’t budge (recession not withstanding) . Panel prices with the tariffs won’t go down. Datacenter electric consumption I think was misjudged years ago and just now has producers scrambling to get projects planned only to find it’s a 5 year wait for NG turbines. All the renewables just got put on hold. Hopefully your utility commission can act is responsible way.
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