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Heat pump water heater offers some of the highest water heater efficiency available. Heat pump water heaters are not as common their standard efficiency counterparts, but in time they will very likely become the standard for electric water heating...

Plumbing / Water Heaters & Tankless / Plumbing Products / Articles / Heat Pump WH / GE Heat Pump Water Heater

GeoSpring Electric Heat Pump Water Heater

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Summary: Heat pump water heaters will likely become more and more popular with rising electric and gas costs. Heat pump water heaters are extremely efficient and offer numerous eco-friendly features such as vacation and sleep mode. The draw back to these water heaters is they require a lot of space, roughly 1000 sq feet, and require a dedicated 220V hook up. In terms of efficiency and available hot water heat pump water heaters blow standard electric away.

Buy this if you want: the highest efficiency available, eco-friendly features.

Features

The energy efficient GE hybrid water heater exceeds 2010 ENERGY STAR standards with an energy factor rating (EF) of 2.35 (in Hybrid mode). The energy factor indicates a water heater's overall energy efficiency based on the amount of hot water produced per unit of fuel consumed over a typical day. The higher the energy factor, the more efficient the water heater will be.

GeoSpring hybrid electric heat pump water heater – 2.35 EF (in Hybrid mode)

Standard electric water heater – 0.88 EF

Saves approximately $320* per year–that's $3,200 savings in energy costs over a 10-year period

Uses less than half the energy compared to a conventional 50-gallon tank water heater

Operates at 550 watts in eHeat™ mode vs. 4,500 watts in standard electric mode

Exceeds ENERGY STAR requirement of 2.0 Energy Factor (EF) with a rating of 2.35 EF (in Hybrid mode)

Settings

eHeat™ mode – Maximize your savings. In this mode, the water heater only operates the heat pump to heat the water. This is the most efficient mode, and allows for the greatest amount of savings.

Hybrid mode – Use less energy while still experiencing fast recovery times. While the unit uses the heat pump as its primary means to heat the water, the standard electric elements may activate if a faster water temperature recovery time is needed. When the system determines that demand has been met, it will automatically revert back to using the heat pump only. This is the default mode the electric water heater is shipped in.

High Demand mode – This is a great feature if you have guests spending the weekend and need increased amounts of hot water. High Demand mode operates very similar to Hybrid mode, but lets the system know in advance that it will be experiencing a larger water demand than usual. The water heater will be faster to react to temperature recovery by cycling on the heating elements sooner and for a longer duration of time.

Standard mode – This mode shuts off the heat pump and only uses the electric elements to heat the water, just like a standard electric water heater. Standard mode allows for operation in extremely cold situations (less than 45°F) where heat pump functionality would not be ideal.

Vacation setting – With this setting, the system will drop the temperature set point to 50°F to save energy, while also preventing the water from freezing. Simply set how many days you will be away, with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 90. The unit automatically heats the water to the previous set temperature the day before you are expected to return. Now you can experience a hot shower the moment you return home.

Our Comparison Opinion:

Noritz High Efficiency Tankless Water Heater - Noritz makes what we be live to be the most reliable standard efficiency tankless water heater. They too make a high efficiency tankless water heater however we have very little experience with the unit and have not seen many field installation and therefore have no opinion at this time.

Navien Tankless Water Heater - We installed Navien for about 12 months. These units have proven to be very unreliable and we no longer install. In concept they are a great idea but they need some engineering redesign.

These brief summaries are our field findings and general opinions. We encourage you to complete your own research. We do not have complete knowledge or practice with all manufactures or models. These opinions are not a guarantee against failures.

What Our Actual Field Plumbers and HVAC Technicians Say About this Product,

"These units aren't that common yet, but for the homeowner who wants top efficiency you can get it here."

"These water heaters work great and can be retrofitted in place of most any existing electric water heater. The only draw back is you need to have between 500 and 1000 sq feet of space around the unit for it to work properly."

Product Brochures:

Eternal Tankless Water Heater - General Brochure

Heat pump water heaters explained

www.eternalwaterheater.com

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