The back story…
Recently I replaced an electric water heater with a manufactured date from 1992. You might be asking yourself how the hell a water heater survived that long to begin with.
Long story short, my wife and I purchased a farm which belonged to my great-grandparents in 2021. They had passed about 15 years prior and between them and us, my great uncle owned the place but didn’t visit very often. So it’s life the last 15 years was pretty laid back, it literally just kept the same 50 gallons of water hot.
All that changed when my family of 5 moved it. It managed to survived another 3 years, but lets face it, it didn’t owe anyone anything after 20+ years of service. (It was an A.O. Smith for those wondering.)
I had been eyeing hybrid water heaters for some time before this, mainly because I knew how much it was costing me for that antique to heat enough water for all of us. It sucked power!
But hybrid water heaters are nearly $1500-2000 dollars, so I never pulled the trigger.
Well, until I had too….
I went downstairs and noticed some water on the floor, which isn’t abnormal for a 100 year old farm house, but this water never seemed to dry up even though we have a dehumidifier running. After inspecting the top of the old water heater I found this.
How the hell did it not shock anyone? The wires were literally sitting in water.
So I checked our local Menards and sure enough they had a few hybrid water heaters in stock. So it was either hybrid, or install a propane unit, which my wife would have preferred because she also wants her propane stove back… (it never ends, am I right fellas?)
So the decision was pretty easy… time to suck it up and go spend a bunch of money with the hope that the hybrid technology would pay for itself and wasn’t just a gimmick.
If you aren’y familiar with hybrid water heaters here is some background info on why they are supposed to be better…. (Thanks ChatGPT!)
Why a Heat Pump Water Heater is More Efficient Than an Electric Heating Element
Traditional electric water heaters use electric resistance heating elements to heat the water, which are simple but not very efficient. In contrast, hybrid (or heat pump) water heaters use a different technology that moves heat rather than generating it, making them far more efficient. Here’s a breakdown:
Electric Resistance Heating:
- Electric water heaters use a heating element to convert electrical energy directly into heat. This process is fairly inefficient because for every 1 watt of electrical input, they typically produce about 3.41 BTUs (British Thermal Units) of heat.
- Efficiency: About 1 BTU per 1 watt of input power (a coefficient of performance, or COP, of 1).
Heat Pump Water Heater:
- A heat pump water heater works by pulling ambient heat from the air and transferring it into the water, using much less electricity in the process. Instead of generating heat, it simply moves it. Because it’s transferring heat, a heat pump can produce significantly more heat output (BTUs) per watt of electrical input.
- For every 1 watt of input, a heat pump can produce 3 to 4 BTUs of heat, sometimes even more, depending on environmental factors.
- Efficiency: Around 3 to 4 BTUs per 1 watt of input power (a COP of 3 to 4).
Comparing the Two:
- Traditional electric water heaters use 1 watt of electricity to create 3.41 BTUs of heat.
- In comparison, heat pump water heaters use that same 1 watt of electricity to transfer 9 to 13.6 BTUs of heat.
This means that heat pump water heaters are about 3 to 4 times more efficient than traditional electric heaters, leading to substantial energy savings. Over time, this higher efficiency can significantly lower energy bills while still providing the same amount of hot water.
How Long Does It Take to Heat 50 Gallons of Water?
Traditional Electric Water Heater:
- Electric water heaters typically use 4,500-watt heating elements to warm up the water. The time it takes to heat a full 50-gallon tank from 50°F to 120°F (a 70-degree increase) can be calculated based on energy input and water volume.Calculation:
- To raise the temperature of 50 gallons of water by 70°F, you’ll need about 29,300 BTUs of energy (1 BTU raises 1 pound of water by 1°F, and 1 gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds).
- At 3.41 BTUs per watt-hour, the heater needs around 8,600 watt-hours (29,300 BTUs ÷ 3.41) to heat the water.
- With a 4,500-watt element, the heating time would be about 2 hours (8,600 watt-hours ÷ 4,500 watts).
Heat Pump Water Heater:
- Heat pump water heaters are more energy-efficient, but they heat water more slowly than electric resistance elements because they draw heat from the surrounding air rather than directly converting electricity to heat. Typically, a heat pump water heater uses around 500 to 1,500 watts depending on the model and settings.Calculation:
- The same 29,300 BTUs are required to heat the water from 50°F to 120°F.
- Assuming the heat pump has a COP of 3, it will use about 2,867 watt-hours of energy (29,300 BTUs ÷ 10.23 BTUs per watt, with the efficiency multiplier from the COP of 3).
- A heat pump water heater consuming 1,000 watts on average will take around 2.9 hours (2,867 watt-hours ÷ 1,000 watts) to heat the water.
Key Takeaways:
- Electric water heaters heat water faster (about 2 hours) but use far more energy.
- Heat pump water heaters take slightly longer (2.5 to 3 hours) but are much more energy-efficient, meaning they use fewer watts to achieve the same result.
Old Baseline Power Usage
When we first moved in I installed an Emporia Energy Monitor which is pretty sweet, but that’s a whole different article i need to write….
So how much power does a 20 year old water heater use for a family of 5? You might want to sit down…
Ouch right? All in my co-op is about .14-.17 cents per kWh, and the old one was using about 350kWh per month on average. So between $50 and $60 per month is what it was costing to run.
Emporia also gives you other views, all the way from yearly down to seconds. Below is the day view.
Fast forward a month
As you can see above, I was SHOCKED by the first two days of usage.
To put the screenshot above in perspective, we were on vacation for a little over a week in June, you can see that weeks usage in the screenshot below.
On the far right you can also see about 4.5 weeks of normal usage after I installed the hybrid unit.
IT’S BASICALLY LIKE WE AREN’T HERE!
So will it pay for itself?
This unit has a 10 year parts warranty, so let’s only assume it will make it 10 years.
Looking at the screenshots above, I think we can guestimate that this new unit will cost about $15/month to operate vs $50-60/month. So about at $35-45/month savings.
The cost was about $1400 after the menards rebate. And I also recieved a $75 bill credit from my electric company. And I should get 30% of the project cost back as a credit on my federal income taxes.
So all things considered the new water heater will cost me about $900.
A conventional electric water heater costs about $500 (if you get the one with wifi like the hybrid).
So the difference is about $400.
If we figure a $40/month savings, the ROI on this thing is less than 1 year.
Over 10 years, I will have saved $4000 dollars.
Safe to say if it doesn’t give me problems I would highly recommend upgrading from conventional to hybrid if you already have electric.
Nerd Stuff about the Hybrid Water Heater
This new Richmond (which is made by Rheem) hybrid hot water heater comes with wifi connectivity and an app to control it too.
It is a nice looking app on the iPhone, overall I’d give it a 7/10, but I did already leave some developer feedback. Mainly because if you want to “refresh” you have to kill the app then relaunch it, because it doesn’t update when you pull down on the page like a webpage or other app would do.
Out side of that it is pretty cool, it has the ability to switch modes, set schedules, and even tell you about how much hot water you have left. It even has an energy usage monitor included too incase you dont have an Emporia or similar unit installed on you breaker panel.
One of the things I do like about the schedules is that I can set it to get hotter in the morning, before we get out of bed, so that when several people are doing back to back showers we dont run out of hot water.
Disclaimer: My kids are all old enough to understand that they dont need to turn on as much hot as they did before. If you have young kids or places that don’t have a mixing valve like most showers in the USA have, be careful!
Eye candy below, click on any of the pictures to make it bigger.
Other benefits
I forgot to mention that because this thing is basically a dehumidifier, it also pulls moisture out of the basement too! So I hope to be able to shutdown or at least move the existing dehumidifier to another part of the basement.
It also cools the basement, not that it really needs it, but the air coming from the outlet side of the compressor is probably 40-50 degrees! So if you have a hot garage instead of a basement it can help to cool your garage down too.
