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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today finalized Congressionally-mandated energy-efficiency standards for a range of residential water heaters to save American households approximately $7.6 billion per year on their energy and water bills, while significantly cutting energy waste and harmful carbon pollution. The final standards for residential water heaters align with recommendations from various stakeholders, including efficiency and environmental advocates, the Consumer Federation of America, and a leading U.S. water heater manufacturer. The standards would require the most common-sized electric water heaters to achieve efficiency gains with heat pump technology, helping to accelerate the deployment of this cost-effective, clean energy technology while also reducing strain on the electric grid. Over 30 years of shipments, these updated standards are expected to save Americans $124 billion on their energy bills and reduce 332 million metric tons of dangerous carbon dioxide emissionsequivalent to the combined annual emissions of nearly 43 million homes.

"Almost every U.S. household has a water heater, and for too long outdated energy efficiency standards have led to higher utility bills for families," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. "The Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to put American consumers first with new, effective rulessupported by industrythat save both energy and money."

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DOE last updated residential water heater efficiency standards, which are required by Congress, in 2010. Compliance will be required starting in 2029 for the new standards adopted today, which would result in over 50% of the newly manufactured electric storage water heaters to utilize heat pump technology, compared to 3% today. Replacing common-sized traditional electric resistance storage water heaters with electric heat pump water heaters meeting the new standards would save consumers approximately $1,800 on their utility bills, on average, over the life of the appliance, with total savings helping low-income households, who spend a higher percentage of their income on utility bills in particular.

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Sims said:

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I guess unless you live somewhere that is cold and the heat pump doesn't keep up.

Also, if they're locating indoors, you are just removing heat content from your air which means the furnace has to do more work. If they're outdoors, see first point.

Seems like there will be ideal applications and less than ideal applications.

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Gator92 said:

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They might save some v standard electric, but no way they cost less to operate than gas...

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bmks270 said:

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Saves you $3 a year while costing hundreds more to purchase for a 30 break even but only a 3 year warranty. And also talking twice as long to accomplish the same task as the prior generation.

That's how these appliance efficiency standards go.

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Sims said:

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I guess unless you live somewhere that is cold and the heat pump doesn't keep up.

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Fightin_Aggie said:

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If you factor in the waste heat that is dumped into your typically air conditioned space and the added install cost no way this saves anything.

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jrdaustin said:

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Wowza. I just looked at how they marry heat pump technology with water heaters and it will be a crapshow.

Apparently the idea is to stick a compressor and evaporator coil on top of the water heater, with a fan to move airflow. Then, you reject the heat into a refrigerant-to-water condenser in the tank.

Yes, it will be more efficient than an electric resistance element in the tank, but it will also bring a lot of problems.

As mentioned above, your max water temp will be a direct result of the ambient air temp at the time of heating.

So if your water heater is located in a closet in the house, you're basically screwed, because your normal air conditioning system will have to be set high enough so the tank heat pump will operate. It will be cool around the water heater, but not so much in other areas of the house.

Put it in the attic or garage you say? That's great in the summer when temps are high. But in the fall and winter when your temps are 70 and below, your water heater will not heat water above 90 degrees. With our body temp being 98, that's not hot.

I'm guessing they'll have an "emergency heat" backup that will be resistance, but it will be used very often, mostly negating the benefits of a heat pump.

The reason a heat pump works for air conditioning is simple. If you're wanting to cool inside, it's hot outside. When you want to heat inside, it's cold outside. There's a reversing valve that can reverse the system. However, when we want hot water, it may be hot OR cold outside.

In summary, this is a monumentally STUPID idea that is being pushed on a single metric, that resistance heat is less efficient than a refrigeration cycle. That's true, but not relevant in the water heating world.

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bmks270 said:

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jrdaustin said:

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Wowza. I just looked at how they marry heat pump technology with water heaters and it will be a crapshow.

Apparently the idea is to stick a compressor and evaporator coil on top of the water heater, with a fan to move airflow. Then, you reject the heat into a refrigerant-to-water condenser in the tank.

Yes, it will be more efficient than an electric resistance element in the tank, but it will also bring a lot of problems.

As mentioned above, your max water temp will be a direct result of the ambient air temp at the time of heating.

So if your water heater is located in a closet in the house, you're basically screwed, because your normal air conditioning system will have to be set high enough so the tank heat pump will operate. It will be cool around the water heater, but not so much in other areas of the house.

Put it in the attic or garage you say? That's great in the summer when temps are high. But in the fall and winter when your temps are 70 and below, your water heater will not heat water above 90 degrees. With our body temp being 98, that's not hot.

I'm guessing they'll have an "emergency heat" backup that will be resistance, but it will be used very often, mostly negating the benefits of a heat pump.

The reason a heat pump works for air conditioning is simple. If you're wanting to cool inside, it's hot outside. When you want to heat inside, it's cold outside. There's a reversing valve that can reverse the system. However, when we want hot water, it may be hot OR cold outside.

In summary, this is a monumentally STUPID idea that is being pushed on a single metric, that resistance heat is less efficient than a refrigeration cycle. That's true, but not relevant in the water heating world.

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You can't put them in a closet.

Also, pics I saw had them outside, like your AC units. I think the idea is they use the ambient air to heat the water.

Yeah it's doable but expensive and extra complexity compared to gas or electric coil.

It's also kind of dumb because you can't heat the water hotter than ambient air even with 100% heat transfer efficiency, so you need augmented heat anyway, so you still need the original coil or gas system.

You spend less on electricity using heat from ambient, but have to spend $1500-2000 on the higher complexity system, it makes it pointless.

Just make more cheap grid energy (nuclear), that is overall more economically efficient for society.

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JamesE4 said:

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bmks270 said:

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jrdaustin said:

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Wowza. I just looked at how they marry heat pump technology with water heaters and it will be a crapshow.

Apparently the idea is to stick a compressor and evaporator coil on top of the water heater, with a fan to move airflow. Then, you reject the heat into a refrigerant-to-water condenser in the tank.

Yes, it will be more efficient than an electric resistance element in the tank, but it will also bring a lot of problems.

As mentioned above, your max water temp will be a direct result of the ambient air temp at the time of heating.

So if your water heater is located in a closet in the house, you're basically screwed, because your normal air conditioning system will have to be set high enough so the tank heat pump will operate. It will be cool around the water heater, but not so much in other areas of the house.

Put it in the attic or garage you say? That's great in the summer when temps are high. But in the fall and winter when your temps are 70 and below, your water heater will not heat water above 90 degrees. With our body temp being 98, that's not hot.

I'm guessing they'll have an "emergency heat" backup that will be resistance, but it will be used very often, mostly negating the benefits of a heat pump.

The reason a heat pump works for air conditioning is simple. If you're wanting to cool inside, it's hot outside. When you want to heat inside, it's cold outside. There's a reversing valve that can reverse the system. However, when we want hot water, it may be hot OR cold outside.

In summary, this is a monumentally STUPID idea that is being pushed on a single metric, that resistance heat is less efficient than a refrigeration cycle. That's true, but not relevant in the water heating world.

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You can't put them in a closet.

Also, pics I saw had them outside, like your AC units. I think the idea is they use the ambient air to heat the water.

Yeah it's doable but expensive and extra complexity compared to gas or electric coil.

It's also kind of dumb because you can't heat the water hotter than ambient air even with 100% heat transfer efficiency, so you need augmented heat anyway, so you still need the original coil or gas system.

You spend less on electricity using heat from ambient, but have to spend $1500-2000 on the higher complexity system, it makes it pointless.

Just make more cheap grid energy (nuclear), that is overall more economically efficient for society.

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I don't think you understand how heat pumps work

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