Hybrid Water Heaters - Utilizing Electricity And Also A Small-Sized Heat Pump

By Steven O'Donnell Senior Trainer for AHIT

Heat pump or Hybrid water heaters have been in the market for a couple of years now. They have lately gotten quite popular with the Energy Efficiency group. The heat pump technology is not at all new (1st unit produced during the late 1850's), simply just the application. I have seen ads from a variety of companies touting savings in the 50-62 % range. The energy factor (EF) for a heat pump unit is 2.0 opposeded to a standard element type EF of 0.9

Just what they have done is install a small-sized heat pump unit on top of an electric powered water heater. They still have electric elements installed. They are able to run in 3 modes, Energy Saver (heat pump only), High Demand (heat pump and elements), and Elements only.

When inspecting such units, they should be installed in spots with at minimum 700 - 1,000 ft3 of air space around them. They also will need to be placed in spaces with an ambient temp of 40 - 120° F for optimum operation. The side feature of these units is that they cool the space around them, so putting them in a hot garage or maybe an attic will help cool down that space. A lot like a standard air conditioning unit they have a filter which has to be cleaned and also a condensate drain line that will need to be routed to an appropriate location. I expect that Heat Pump water heaters are going to take the place of typical units in the not too distant future and are going to be what most home inspectors see at the time of inspections.

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