GE Announces New Line Of Efficient Tankless/Hybrid Water HeatersDepartment of Energy also creates new Energy Star standards for water heating |
12 Comments |
| By Michael d'Estries in Energy, Green Building | April 2, 2008 | |
Tankless water heaters always seemed to make a lot of sense to me. I mean, hot water on demand as opposed to hot water sitting and waiting — seems smart, right? Everytime I go away on vacation, I lower the temp on my water tank to conserve energy, but I know I’m in a small minority. Most people probably go along heating water even when they’re not home for extended periods of time.
Which is why I’m jazzed about GE’s new line of tankless water heaters. For those that don’t need tankless, the electric-hybird heater they’ve got waiting in the wings looks pretty sweet as well. According to the release, the gas tankless on-demand heaters will “save 25 percent in water heating costs on an annual energy bill in comparison to a standard 40-gallon gas tank.” Additionally, the unique design can help avoid up to 25 percent of CO2 emissions tied to water heating.
Even better, earlier today the U.S. Department of Energy created the first ENERGY STAR standard for water heaters. Ironically, water heating was the only major residential energy product that did not have an ES designation — even though it’s one of the largest energy consumers in the household.
Of course, not everyone has access to gas (and truly, for those of us building green homes, reducing the use of fossil fuels is probably on the short list) so GE is getting ready to launch an Electric-Hybrid water heater for next year. According to early tests, this hybrid would reduce typical water heating energy consumption by more than half. While the typical home might use 4800kwh/year, the GE model consumes only 2300kwh/year. Plus, it would retain the same footprint of standard water heaters allowing easy installation.
To check out a video of GE’s new gas tankless and a preview of the hybrid, jump here. You can view the DOE announcement here.
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sjames said,
I am in this business and know a lot about both kinds of water heaters.
Actually tank water heaters do not fire up all day when you are not using them. In fact they only cost $.15/day to heat and store the water you need for immediate demand. Unlike the tankless who use extreme amounts of gas (199,000 btus versus 40,000 for a tank water heater) to boil water to get it to you quickly. Studies have shown you use more gas and more water with a tankless water heater than a tank type.
Lots of advertising propaganda out there which gets people excited because they think they are burning energy by storing hot water or that their water heater will leak with a tank. Truth of the matter is all water heaters and the water comes from the incoming water regardless of whether it is a tank or tankless.
I am not trying to put the tankless product down but it isn’t all that you might think it is. Search the consumer reports site for the full story. Make sure you are informed on the front end. Many tankless products get installed because the homeowner wants one, and then half of those are taken back out and replaced because they were misinformed.
steve said,
sjames..you apparently are in the wrong business or don’t know what you’re talking about!!
click on link below or copy & paste in your browser!
http://www.tanklesswaters.com/?
Gideon said,
Steve, your link definitely looks like spam.
The Consumer Reports article sjames mentions is from 02/2005, so it might be out of date, but from looking around there are a lot of problems with tankless systems (some manufacturers have very poor customer service and warranty service, some retro-fits might be necessary).
As the CR article states, it might take a long time to get a monetary return on your tankless investment, but my grandparents have had tankless heaters in their house in Santa Fe (7000 ft. elevation) for almost 30 years and they heat great when the entire family is over for the winter holiday.
For an actually balanced overview of tankless heaters, check out this page, which looks at all types of heaters, aggregates the available reviews of tankless systems, and gives some great resources (including tax credits and other government resources):
Gideon said,
Hmmm, won’t let me link to the site (I swear it’s not spam!!!)
well, go to consumersearch dot com and add to the end /www/house_and_home/water-heaters/review.html
Water Heaters get Energy Star status and Reduce Bills, Emissions : CleanTechnica said,
[...] GroovyGreen.com [...]
Nilay said,
An interesting fact is that people in India has always been using “Tank Less” water heaters.
Yes, there are reasons which are not about “going green” like – Not having enough space in the house. But these heater has allowed them to now go onto “Gas Based” instant heaters which uses LPG. And this has made it further green.
There is a new movement in one state of India – Called – Compact Biogas Plants – these plants
uses “Food Waste” and produces Methane which in turn can be used for Cooking and Water Heating. Here is the info which may interest you.
A Study done by – Iowa State
http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/ethos/ethos05/proceedings2004/presentations/karvedesignfieldtesting.pdf
A Detailed Information and Web Site of the Organization:
http://www.arti-india.org/content/view/45/52/
Hope this can bring some more “Green” ! (Pun intended!)
-N
Prospective Citizen of Green and Sustainable World!
Martin said,
I used to think tankless was the best most effiecient until I ran across this from Ed Bagley’s site
http://www.livingwithed.net/ed_uses.asp?CID=35
Thomas Jefferson said,
I’ve been using a tankless waterheater for about 2 years now. Make sure you get a installer that knows what they are doing, that was the only issue we have had with it.
as for sjames, he hasn’t a clue and it’s clearly apparent he doesn’t 1) know what he is talking about 2) hasn’t that much experience installing them (the type to watch out for) 3) loves to spend money on running a tank water heater all day long.
we had savings right away. with calculator in hand, I figured the tankless water heater would be paying for itself in roughly 2 1/2 years. almost there.
tank less are a waste of money said,
tankless water heaters are only good in a retrofit application for filling up large roman tubs…other wise the house needs to be build with tankless in mind… forget about getting instant hot water at your fixtures, with tankless you need to install a small tanked waterheater to run the pump thru otherwise your constantly heating the water… the cost of installing a tankless is so much because of having to rework the water piping and upsizing the gas… the best option to go green is using the 96% efficient vertex water heater from ao smith or this hybrid. bottom line is a tankless can leak just like a tanked waterheater and cause the same amount of damage…
Redwood said,
This article contains a number of inaccuracies, This water heater is a tank type water heater. the tank is a 50 gallon tank, The base is a electric water heater and the thing mounted on top is a heat pump that works on a refrigeration process to pull heat out of the ambient air and heat the water in the tank. You can read about it at this link. http://411plumb.com/ge-heat-pump-water-heater
Tankless is a completely different animal.
Charlie said,
What about in cold climates? What about reliability?
These hybrid heat pump water heaters literally take the heat out of the air, and use it to heat your cold water to 130 degrees.
Testing of efficiency is usually done at 70 degrees.
Therefore areas in the South can expect significant energy savings.
Rheem acknowledges that savings will be less in areas outside the South. They divide the US into three temperature zones to estimate savings:
•Zone 1: Heat pump will be used most of the year (90-100%)
•Zone 2: Combination heat pump (60%) and electric heating elements (40%)
•Zone 3: Combination heat pump (50%) and electric heating elements (50%)
Basically Zone 1 includes the South, Zone 3 colder areas of the Norheast, Midwest and Rocky Mountain states, and Zone 2 the area in beween. http://www.rheem.com/Products/tank_water_heaters/hpwh/hpwhhomeowner/
But there has only been one field study of heat pump water heaters available, and that was done in 15 Connecticut households:
http://www.cee1.org/eval/db_pdf/277.pdf
And in these (non GE) units, only 6 of the 15 households reported a cost savings. And that may be an overestimation of savings potential as this 9 month study included all 6 of the warmest months and only three of the coldest months.
Another concern is that in 4 of the 15 households, the heat pump unit broke down before 9 months.
The GE hybrid heat pump water heater does have a 10 year guarantee on parts, and a one year guarantee on labor. Hopefully they have engineered a superior product with low maintence costs.
MD said,
If you look at the this website – http://aceee.org/consumerguide/waterheating.htm you can see that if you project savings over 13 yrs the new hybrid is much more efficient. Tankless is used in Europe everywhere for years and has proven to be green, but doesn’t mean that newer technology can’t be better