Electric Heat Pump Water Heater Upgrade Experience
We are considering upgrading our gas water heater to a heat pump water heater. Has anybody here completed this project? Do you recommend your plumber? Did they seem trustworthy? Reasonable on price? I understand there are some tax credits. Has anybody here worked with BayRen or gone through a federal tax credit?
TIA
Paul
Jun 9, 2023
Parent Replies
We recently had a heat pump water heater installed through Hassler. It was expensive (about $10,000 for a 65-gallon water heater and installation) but they do offer very good customer service and they process the rebate applications through BayRen for you. I appreciated that they were willing to discuss the pros and cons of the project with me in detail ahead of time. The units do make noise approximately equivalent to a clothes dryer, and they also will substantially cool the area that you place it in, so make sure to consider those factors.
We recently switched out out both our gas water heater and gas furnace for a Harvest Thermal system. It's a very efficient, very quiet heat pump system that used only one 15-amp circuit in our box (so we didn't have to upgrade our panel, which can get pricey). It was expensive, and the whole system is still pretty new, but it's been great so far. If you have some means, I suggest you look into it: https://www.harvest-thermal.com/
We used a BayREN contractor for the installation, and got our rebate promptly. EBCE also has a rebate, but we're still waiting for that one (six months post install).
The IRA tax credits just started this tax year, so no experience with it yet, but I suspect it should be straightforward when the time comes. If you qualify for the IRA rebates (different from the tax credits), I think those details are still being worked out state by state. This site has good info: https://www.rewiringamerica.org/
By the way - we have solar panels, which helps a lot. Our total PGE bill is now about $5/month for gas (we still have our gas stove) and approximately $12/month for PGE's required electric usage charges.