combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

rollandelliott

http://www.hotspotenergy.com/air-conditioner-water-heaters/

Anyone know the pricing on a unit like this? Depending on cost might be a good solution for those in the deep south.

Ken Marsh

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

You do not have to be in the south to benefit from this technique.
We have lived most our life and raised our kids on free hot water heated by air conditioning.
In the winter the unit produces hot water from ground sourced water at 1/3 the energy use.
I built the thing 34 years ago and it is still going.
The reason I built it, at that time they were not commercially available.

Ralph Day

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

Hi Ken
Talk about hiding your light under a bushel! Do you have any blogs about building your projects? Any home URL? Your signature line and free hot water (well, almost free) experience ...inquiring minds want to know:D

Ralph

Ken Marsh

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

Ralph,
Really appreciated looking through the account of your installation.
Thanks for taking the time to post.
And greenpowertalk sounds interesting too.
I have it bookmarked and will browse through sometime.
Time is the critical factor now.

As for capturing waste heat from air conditioning;
Each ton hour of airconditioning generates around 15,000 Btu of waste heat.
It is not generally appreciated that this 15,000 Btu is produced by approx. 5,000 Btu of electricity.
So the heat rejected by one ton hr of airconditioning consists of the 5,000 Btu you purchased from the electric co.
and another 10-12 thousand Btu of heat pumped out of your house.
This amount of heat will heat 24 gal of water 75 deg F.

The technique of accomplishing water heat from airconditioning is well known.
The equipment is available.
But it will not be the lowest cost air conditioner you can buy.
Service men don't like it since it requires more time and your have to be able to figure it out.

As for a blog, I just have not taken the time to but up a web page on this.
But maybe this winter we will take the time.
It is certainly one of the best candidates for energy reduction and also cost reduction.
It is not uncommon for people in temperate climates to spend more money heating water than it costs to heat their place.
But they probably do not realize this is happening.

Windsun

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

I have one of the new GE Hybrid's installed just a couple of weeks ago. It is in Phoenix, in the non A/C garage, which often gets to over 100 degrees this time of year. So far, it has used about 60% less power than my old electric only unit. http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=GEH50DEEDSR

It will probably actually end up being better tha 60% for about 8 months of the year, as the first couple of days I ran it very heavy to check out how well it worked.

It also - being a heat pump - actually cools the garage down about 6 to 8 degrees. Cost me around $1200 + $300 installation. I could have installed it myself, but getting too old to move 200 pound heaters around very much.

solarvic

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

Windsun, You should like your Geospring. I have the chinese made one and I have it in my utility room in a double wide. I look for reasons to make the heatpump run on a hot day. Doing my laundry today! It will be 2 years this fall that I have owned it and it makes all the hotwater I need on the ECO setting. :Dsolarvic:D

rollandelliott

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

my local lowes has a hot water heat pump unit on clearance for $900. I am hoping they make the price even lower and then I will buy it for my sister.

SteveK

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

I like this thing. Pretty slick. Seems to be exclusive and not available to purchase as a DIY project for now.

We live up north and have had great success with the Nyle Geyser in an unheated basement. I think this is the best investment we've made. The second is the other half of this device, the minisplits. I still have no firm grasp on the technical end of the Geyser but for the last year and a half it has gotten thumbs-up from the wife and 2 adult kids. We spend very little on hot water at ~$14.25/month for the last ~3500 hours so I approve it too. No resistance heating element either.
And yes we do wash regularly...

Windsun

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

My Geospring has been installed for a little over two weeks now, so was able to get some better data.

Based on 15 days (last two weeks of June) of the old standard water heater vs 15 days July 10 to 26) on the Geospring, my hot water heating power usage is down 82%.

The water heater is installed in an uninsulated garage in Phoenix, and temps there can get as high as 110 F, so that probably accounts for the much better than rated efficiency of the heat pump mode.

rollandelliott

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

My sisters garage is wayy too hot as well. I was actually thinking of ways to cool it down, hopefully that wont' affect the heat pump Water heater too much. but it is interesting to note that it is more effcient in a hot garage. Mkes sense. Just didn't think of it that way.

Windsun

Re: combination hot water heater and air conditioning system

It also cools the garage off just a bit - probably 3-8 degrees depending on how often it runs. Not a lot, but it all helps.