Save on Your Water Heating Costs | Wright Hennepin Electric

You may have heard of air source heat pumps and how efficiently they operate to heat and cool your home, but did you know heat pumps can also help you save on your water heating costs?

Posted by Guest Blogger on August 7, 2012

You may have heard of air source heat pumps and how efficiently they operate to heat and cool your home, but did you know heat pumps can also help you save on your water heating costs?

Air source heat pumps (ASHP) have been available to help you save on heating and cooling your home for years. Heat pumps do not create heat like combustion furnaces, but simply use fluids and compressors to transfer heat from where it is to where you want it to go.

New technology has taken this heating method a step further, allowing it to be used for water heating. Companies such as General Electric and Rheem are now manufacturing 50 gallon water heaters with ASHPs mounted on top of the tanks.

These units range in price, but typically cost about $1,500 dollars. This may seem like a lot of money, but it really is a smart investment as the unit will typically pay for itself in about five years.

I’ve been testing one of these units for the past two years as a part of a pilot project coordinated by Great River Energy – one of Wright-Hennepin’s power suppliers. In November of 2010, I removed a 105 gallon Marathon electric water heater that I previously had in my home and replaced it with a 50 gallon General Electric ASHP water heater. Prior to removing my electric water heater, I monitored my daily usage for two months. My average daily usage for this period was 11 kWh per day. After a year of use, my daily kWh consumption average was reduced to just 2 kWh.

If we do some quick math, my new ASHP water heater saves me an average of $266 dollars per year. That is some serious savings!

If you are in the market for a new water heater, I would suggest looking into an ASHP water heater combination unit. It’s worked out well for me.


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