Spent $800 on a heat pump water heater... wish I did it 3 years ago

My old electric tank finally died and I was dead set on just replacing it cheap. My neighbor who's a contractor convinced me to look at heat pump models. Figured I'd give it a shot since there's a federal rebate right now. Installed it last month and my electric bill dropped by $40 already. The unit itself was $1400 plus install but the rebate knocked it down to $800 out of pocket. At this rate it pays itself off in like 20 months. Has anyone else made the switch and seen actual savings or am I just lucky?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean489d ago

Wait until that thing kicks on in winter and pumps cold air into your basement or garage, making your furnace work harder to compensate, so any savings on electric get eaten by heating costs. Most people forget these things literally steal heat from the room they're in, so unless your space is already heated by something else, you're just moving the problem around. Your $40 monthly savings might turn into a net zero or even a loss once the seasons change, so hold off on the victory lap until you've run it through a full year.

noahwood9d ago

Plus your basement gets damp which makes everything feel colder.

sanchez.julia9d ago

Ha, my buddy Mark learned this the hard way. He put one of those in his basement workshop, all proud of the savings in July. Come December he was freezing his ass off down there and his gas bill went up way more than his electric went down.