If your electric water heater has been around for more than a decade, it might be time for a replacement. To help you make that decision, consider that the cooperative is offering a $300 rebate this year for a qualified heat pump (hybrid) water heater purchased and installed in your home.
While these water heaters typically cost $2,000-plus, with the rebate you will not only save money toward your purchase, but you will save energy by replacing an older, energy-hogging water heater. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates an annual savings of about $300 a year for a family of four.
The chart uses $2,000 as the average heat-pump water heater cost and $1,300 as the average traditional water heater cost.
Heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly. Therefore, they can be two to three times more energy efficient than conventional electric resistance water heaters. To move the heat, heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse.
While a refrigerator pulls heat from inside a box and dumps it into the surrounding room, a stand-alone air-source heat pump water heater pulls heat from the surrounding air and dumps it -- at a higher temperature -- into a tank to heat water. You can purchase a stand-alone heat pump water heating system as an integrated unit with a built-in water storage tank and back-up resistance heating elements.
