electric water likely the #1 power user in my house

solarvic

Re: electric water likely the #1 power user in my house

iI figure I used 497 KWH for 1st. year with my geospring with water temp set at 125f. Run dishwasher about every 3 days. Have cloths washer and take a good long shower every day. Have utility meter to monitor use. Meter measured 11 kwh for 2 days on my old 40 gal waterheater before I got the geospring connected. So I think it works well and saves me money as long as the waterheater has a normal lifespan. Who knows if the new american built waterheater is any better. If you can get a good price on the leftover model I don,t think I would be afraid to buy it. :Dsolarvic:D

BB.

Re: electric water likely the #1 power user in my house

Just to highlight Vic's numbers:

• 497 kWH per year on GE unit
• 11 kWH per 2 days * 1/2 day * 365 days per year = 2,007 kWH per year

The 2,000 kWH per year is a very rough number (very short term measurement)--But one should expect about a 50% reduction in kWH usage if the GE is running in heat pump mode only...

-Bill

techntrek

Re: electric water likely the #1 power user in my house

Wouldn't it be even cheaper long-term to stick with the original electric heater and install solar thermal - in situations where it is possible?

BB.

Re: electric water likely the #1 power user in my house

Solar Guppy has commented in the past that he believes that these Heat Pump water heaters may be a better value (over all costs) vs Natural Gas or even Solar thermal (no panels, pumps, controller, extra plumbing, etc.) for many people (in past post(s)).

Perhaps next time he logs in--he can comment more on this (I am not trying to put words in his mouth).

In the end, try to design both systems, add maintenance (and fuel costs--if needed) and see what the total costs would be over 10-20 years. Currently I pay around $550 for a NOX compliant natural gas 50 gallon water heater (every 10-15 years) and $10-$20 per month (at most) for hot water heating. It would take a while to pay that back with tankless/GEO Spring/Solar...

-Bill