Whoa! This thread went off the deep end fast! Great analogy, AC_Hacker.
One of the reasons my wife and I left Appalachia, was to get away from the fracking. Most people were salivating at the prospect of a company drilling on their property, not considering the long term effects on their water supply or personal health. In many cases, the property owner has no right to refuse to allow the gas drillers to extract it.
ABOUT WATER HEATERS!! My friend in SW Pennsylvania has a HPWH very similar to the one you describe. I helped him carry it in the house. We were going to attempt installing it in the closet of his upstairs bathroom, right behind the shower, it was simply too big to fit through the bathroom door. He wanted it close to the shower for the short plumbing run, but he also hoped to recover some heat from the steamy air during a shower. Alas, we had to install the WH in his laundry room.
He is quite pleased with its operation in the summer months, when the house is warm and humid, but in the cold winter months he switches back to resistive heat, since he hates that powerful blast of cold dry air coming from the laundry room.
My recommendation, is to first reduce the amount of water you use; install a water meter! If you choose to install a HPWH, get one smaller than you think you'll need, locate it somewhere with a reasonable source of heat, and such that a blast of cool air is not an issue. Also, install a waste water heat exchanger to recover that valuable energy going down the drain!
My TRUE recommendation, is to look at what others have built and shared on this forum, and set out with us to build your own. We'll help, I promise!
