The Ruud heat pump water heater

[Kaleva]

http://www.ruud.com/products/tank_water_heaters/hpwh/hpwhhomeowner/

My wife and I are remodeling a house and we hope to move in within the next two weeks. We basically gutted the place down to studs, increasing the insulation in the walls and ceiling and replaced all the windows and doors. I spent a great deal of time doing research on what type of water heater I ought to put in.
I decided on a Ruud heat pump water heater even though the cost was quite high (a little over $1500.00 for a 50 gal. model). But that's contractor's price. List price which most everyone else would pay would be over $2100.00.


Note: At 72", these units are quite tall and it requires 8" of clearance above them for proper air flow. They also cannot be enclosed in small spaces as they extract heat from the air to heat the water.

[Warpy]

1. Interesting

but I live in a very small house and there's only one of me. The smallest tank out there has been more than sufficient and when it goes, I'm going tankless.

The Bosch job I want is about $400-600 plus labor, something that will likely double the cost since I hate plumbing. However, it's got at least twice the lifespan of a tanked water heater and quite possibly more for gas.

Some people have reported inadequate flow through electric tankless heaters. Gas heaters typically have much higher flow and should more than meet my rather frugal needs.

[Kaleva]

2. I haven't heard any postive comments...

about the electric whole house tankless water heaters. The main complaint is that they don't provide enough hot water. But the spot demand electric tankless heaters (serving a single bathroom sink faucet for example) seem to work fine.

[Warpy]

3. Mine will be gas and I'm quite frugal

when it comes to hot water (no big Jacuzzi, for instance), so a single gas unit should supply the whole house nicely.

I agree that from what I've read, the electric units should be in the rooms where the demand is: bathroom, kitchen, laundry.

[Grey]

4. Smart move... nt

[Dr.Phool]

5. I thought about going solar.

But, I thought that the contractor who gave me a price was way out of line. It would consist of 2 plastic tubed panels, plus the tank, and he wanted about $7k. I have 8 of the same panels on my roof, heating my pool, and it cost less than half that price. So, maybe I'll check around a bit more.

Actually, I think I could tie the existing panels in now. The pool is too damned hot right now, even with the solar cut out.

[TheMadMonk]

6. Sad thing I think is that manufacturers are pricing not according to true costs,...

...but are actually grabbing a portion of the payback.

A solar hotwater heater consists of a standard water heater more or less, perhaps $100 worth of additional plumbing, and the panels, a few hundred dollars worth of rubber, aluminium and glass products. Logic decrees that at most a dual solar electric/gas waterheater should cost perhaps $1000 more than a comparable single heatsource model. $2000 if building for a 20 year lifespan.

One problem with DIY plumbing is that in most places you have to decouple from the mains supply with a cistern to comply with legal requirements. Watch it with any modifications.

[jailthecrooks]

9. Seven grand seems at least double what it should be

I'm not sure what plastic lined tube panels really means. Assuming they are evacuated tube systems. How big of a tank? I've seen an install that was easily 200 gallons with flexible insulated sides. It needed some framing work to make room and the plumbing routed waaaay around to attach to southern exposure rooflines... A lot of extra work. That was less than 7 grand.

Sounds like you need a second quote at the very least and if your pool heater is using evacuated tubes then I can't believe that wouldn't be enough for domestic and pool use (8 panels!).

[FBaggins]

7. Placement appears to be important.

Both in "where in the house" terms as well as what parts of the country.

If, for instance, you live in AZ, you could gain additional efficiency by using the exhaust coils for home cooling or by placing the unit in an uninsulated space (garage/whatever) where the warmer air makes the unit that much more efficient. Putting the unit in that same garage in a cold climate would damage the efficiency in the same way that an HVAC heat pump loses efficiency in cold weather. Of course, keeping the unit inside the insulation of the home in a cold climate means that you'll be cooling the same living space that you're trying to heat with your furnace (much as your refrigerator is heating the same living space that you're trying to cool with your AC in the summer.

We've gone with an exterior mounted natural gas tankless unit and have been very happy. I think I would lean in that direction in colder climates (assuming gas is an option).

[Nederland]

8. Have you committed to a HVAC system yet?

I know this is a stretch, but if you haven't you might want to consider a ground based heat pump (geothermal) system inside of an air based one. I have one and it works great. The beauty of a geothermal heat pump is that in the summer the AC system takes heat out of the air in your house and puts it in your hot water tank, meaning during the summer you are basically getting your hot water for "free". (In the winter the system also generates hot water for domestic use, its just not "free")

[Kaleva]

10. Quite happy with the Ruud water heater

Last month's house electric bill was $103.00. In comparison, the similar sized house we used to live in had electric bills 2-3 times as high and it had a gas water heater. With the water heater set to economy mode (heat pump only), we've had plenty of hot water. A side benefit is that the basement has dried out as the heat pump extracts humidity from the air and it is discharged via a condensate pump into the sewer line. In August, the water heater produced about a gallon of condensate a day. I measured this by having the drain go into a 5 gallon bucket instead of the condensate pump over the course of two weeks.

[joshcryer]

11. That's a really nice side effect of the pump, I like it a lot. Wish I could rec a post.

In fact, that makes me think about how one might implement a proper rec system. Make it so that topic recs are divided by post recs, so that topics won't make the greatest page without having a lot of positive and liked responses. Would really really end disruptive posts once and for all.