Electric Water Heater Vs. Heat Pumps

[Designer_82]

Got a building with no gas supply, basic townhouse style condos.

Considering using electric water heaters to feed the hot water for heating or just using heat pumps.

Is there any situation where using electric water heaters for the heating makes any sense?


Thanks

 

[Designer_82]

answered my own question on this. Definitely a no-go on the electric combi-boilers. After researching the spec sheets, they use double the amount of electricity.

 

[LittleInch]

Care to post the data sheets?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[TugboatEng]

You will need at least some amount of electric preheat of the outside temperatures get low enough, I think about 40-45 degrees F.

 

[SAK9]

Combine heat pump with solar if it is feasible in your location

 

[EnergyProfessional]

what climate and where will the heatpump heater be located?
If in heating climate, that heat comes from the ... heated space and you save no energy because the heat extracted has to be made up. In cooling climate, that obviously works much better.

 

[IRstuff]

After researching the spec sheets, they use double the amount of electricity.

Is that necessarily surprising? I'm actually surprised the ratio happens to be equal, since I would think it depends on heat demand for hot water consumption vs. space heating.

As for why use a combo DHW/SH, just consider an apartment or condo building with limited excess volume. Many condos use tankless combo water heaters that use a heated water loop to the air handlers for space heating. That results in a combined space claim for heating to be barely 1 cubic foot, with less than 1 CF for two air handlers for split-level heating.

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[itsmoked]

Considering the obscene price of heat-pump water heaters it would be cheaper to use solar and straight electric water heaters.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[TBP]

What's the cost of running a gas line? Or is this project in one of those jurisdictions that have prohibited any new construction that uses fossil fuels?

 

[IRstuff]

Considering the obscene price of heat-pump water heaters

What's your threshold for "obscene?"

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[GT-EGR]

There might be some rebates or incentives to go with heat pump which can help with your upfront cost issue. Also I think it is more of a factor of 3x more power demand between heat pump and resistance heating - but get equivalent cutsheets with matching output and there’s your answer.

Likely electric heating wins on a full life cycle cost basis are for buildings with very low heat loads and short seasons, florida type conditions.

Check on latest heat pump outdoor temp ratings, but I think they go a lot lower than people think and cover most of the year for most of US.

Can you get a heat pump for heating and cooling rather than a hot water version? You’d get a lot of savings from combining the equipment, but probably end up with much different designs than currently planned.

 

[itsmoked]

What's your threshold for "obscene?"

Water heaters that cost over $2k instead $500. Heat pump water heaters can have installed prices near $5k.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[IRstuff]

OK, I'm actually OK with those prices. We did just get a tankless installed in our last house, and my son has a combo tankless water/space heating system because there's no way they could have installed space heaters in the spaces where the air handlers are

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