I like it with the small fan because it uses the least watts to heat water, lets more of the evaporator get cold enough to dehumidify, and it's much quieter. I am leaving it like this until I get motivated to try something else.
The fan is so weak that I didn't think I could get a good temp reading for air out of evaporator, not much air passes through it.
The thermostat is a bit inconsistent in where it shuts down and the tank temp does rise about 2 more deg after shut down. Just something to keep in mind.
This has been a much more valuable project for me than I was expecting. Of course at this scale there absolutely no economic justification. My main objective has always been to learn a few new tricks and you guys helped a lot.
When I started I thought I could make a passive evaporator. That didn't work, but the fan is so small that someday I might try that again. And I believe this approach would work well with a larger water heater, so I might try that someday. Putting the condenser coils inside the tank would be more efficient, but this approach allows the water heater to be used in its original manner as well as as a heat pump.
I am getting ready to start an AC project and will soon start a thread for that and hope you all find it interesting and are willing to offer advise.
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