By Carole Hawkins, Staff Writer
Never heard of a heat pump water heater? By next year, you may.
New federal regulations that go into effect in April will all but mandate heat pump technology for water heaters larger than 55 gallons, said Rich Grimes, of Water Solutions Marketing in Orlando. After April, the larger sizes of electric water heaters will no longer be manufactured.
“The federal government makes us build water heaters certain ways to meet certain efficiencies,” said Grimes, speaking at the NEFBA E-Council’s June lunch.
Grimes has already been selling heat pump water heaters for years, though, as an energy efficient and cost-saving alternative to electric water heaters.
The upfront installation fee for a heat -pump water heater is $2,000, but most consumers reclaim the difference in energy savings in just over three years.
Heat pump technology has been used for home applications since the 1970s.
Today’s hybrid electric/heat pump water heaters are mature products that combine the heat pump and water tank components into one unit and maintain water temperatures within a degree or two of the thermostat setting.
The product works like an air conditioner in reverse, using the heating side of coil for output rather than the cooling side.
Fluid passing through a piping system absorbs heat from the garage and releases it inside the water tank. The system has the added benefit of cooling and dehumidifying the garage.
A standard electric water heater runs off of a 4,500-watt element. That’s like 45 100-watt light bulbs, Grimes said. By comparison a 6,000 BTU heat pump translates to about 850 watts, or about 81/2 100-watt light bulbs.
“So, you can see immediately with the heat pump there’s going to be some savings here,” he said, a difference of about $30 a month on the electric bill.
Since 1975, the federal government has required increasingly stricter energy efficiency standards for household appliances by legislation known as the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act.
Water heater designs have changed twice before as a result, each time with manufacturers adding more foam insulation to the unit to reduce energy losses.
This time, the standards will add two more inches of foam diameters on smaller models.
Heat pump water heaters are typically installed in garages, because they need about 700 cubic feet of breathing room, a space of about 7-by-10-by-10, Grimes said.
The hybrid heaters are backed up by an electric system. In Florida, the heat pump side of the system runs about 10 months out of the year.