There are a couple things to think about when deciding if a 120V Plug-in HPWH might be for you. Setting a water heater at 140 degrees over the standard 120 degrees provides a up to a 34% increase in hot water available, so a 60 gallon water heater at 140 degrees will be equivalent to an 80 gallon water heater at 120 degrees. The mixing valve then mixes cold water into the 140 degree water so it doesn’t scald you when coming out of the faucet. That means the ProTerra Plug-in water heater can store water at hotter temperatures (like 140 degrees instead of 120 degrees). Second, Rheem has added an integrated mixing valve into its 120V water heater. This is why my home never runs out of hot water with a heat pump even with three showers. With a tank that stores about a day’s worth (60 gallons) of hot water, most families usually have plenty of hot water. First off, heat pumps on their own produce about 10-15 gallons of hot water an hour. Rheem became the first manufacturer to bring a product to market with its 120V ProTerra Plug-in that comes in two models - a dedicated circuit model (where the water heater is the only thing plugged into that circuit) and a shared circuit one.Ī couple of tricks can help heat pump water heaters work with just 120V. Manufacturers then built demo products that are currently being tested in New Buildings Institute’s California field study. Lots of organizations, from utilities to nonprofits (huge shoutout to Building Decarbonization Coalition ) to manufacturers, began meeting regularly to dream and design this 120V HPWH into existence. In 2019, the nonprofit-led Advanced Water Heating Initiative (shameless plug, pun intended, I work on this initiative) saw the need for a water heater that could be plugged into a typical outlet and avoid the electric panel upgrades to help people easily switch from gas to electric water heaters. In my house for example, we run our HPWH exclusively on heat pump mode all year long and never use the backup electric resistance rods and never run out of hot water even with 3 showers. But the times you need those electric resistance elements are pretty rare. If you had a gas water heater and wanted to replace one with a HPWH (which you should do to decarbonize ASAP) you often had to run a new 240V electric line from your electrical panel to your water heater to have enough energy to power the heat pump water heater.Ģ40 volts are required because even though the water heater sips energy with a heat pump most of the time, it’s equipped with high powered electric resistance rods that can kick in during rare periods of really high demand and those rods require a lot of juice. Well, up to now, one potential challenge was installation. They use a quarter of the energy of a standard electric resistance or gas water heater. HPWH are the energy equivalent of 7 solar panels that cost ⅙ of the price. Ok, you may not geek out on heat pump water heaters as much as I do, but these bad boys are the unsung heroes of the climate movement with massive potential to save money and the planet at the same time. Well, they’re finally here! Rheem released its 120V ProTerra(R) Plug-in Heat Pump water heater (HPWH) in July and everyone is excited! Last fall I wrote about how 120 volt heat pump water heaters were just about to come out on the market.
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