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AC_Hacker · 11-26-12, 11:22 PM

Congratulations on the good job.

It was very kind of the dehumidifier folks to make such an attractive shroud for your heat pump!

Really, that's about as straight-forward a solution to improving the efficiency of a water heater as I can imagine. Well done, really well done.

As I recall, you saved the water heater you used from scrap hell. So you might not know its age. At any rate, someone mentioned way before on the 'Manifesto' thread, that having a heat pump instead of 220 volt heating elements, would be much less stressful on the inside of the water heater core, because the temperature cycling is less extreme, and also because you don't have high amperage elements cycling inside the tank, that can accelerate corrosion. I have no way of proving those assertions, but I pass them on along because they sound so intuitively correct.

Keep us posted on the measured efficiency.

Also, it should be a pretty easy matter to keep track of energy costs over a few typical months and compare that with the cost to run the propane heater, from similar months.

Best,

-AC

11-26-12, 11:22 PM	#32
AC_Hacker Supreme EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 4,004 Thanks: 303 Thanked 723 Times in 534 Posts	Great Job! Congratulations on the good job. It was very kind of the dehumidifier folks to make such an attractive shroud for your heat pump! Really, that's about as straight-forward a solution to improving the efficiency of a water heater as I can imagine. Well done, really well done. As I recall, you saved the water heater you used from scrap hell. So you might not know its age. At any rate, someone mentioned way before on the 'Manifesto' thread, that having a heat pump instead of 220 volt heating elements, would be much less stressful on the inside of the water heater core, because the temperature cycling is less extreme, and also because you don't have high amperage elements cycling inside the tank, that can accelerate corrosion. I have no way of proving those assertions, but I pass them on along because they sound so intuitively correct. Keep us posted on the measured efficiency. Also, it should be a pretty easy matter to keep track of energy costs over a few typical months and compare that with the cost to run the propane heater, from similar months. Best, -AC __________________ I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker...