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By the time you get done paying for the modifications (and potentially damaging your AC or voiding the warranty) you might as well have paid the water utility.
This is actually part of a system. The AC is designed to be the heater for the water and the cooling done by the intake water prolongs the life of the AC so there is no warranty problems or modifications. The AC system is designed to heat water and AC.
The 80 gallon units work great for med-size families.
I would still be paying to heat water and the AC part seems very limited. The water tank would be in the unit in a closet . I don't see how this would distribute any of the conditioned air.
I had this 25 years ago in the form of a heat exchanger that used waste heat from the AC to supply domestic hot water.
I would shut off the water heater for the whole summer. After I moved I checked into getting it for the place that I had moved to and learned that it would not work with the newly government mandated refrigerant.
I had this 25 years ago in the form of a heat exchanger that used waste heat from the AC to supply domestic hot water.
I would shut off the water heater for the whole summer. After I moved I checked into getting it for the place that I had moved to and learned that it would not work with the newly government mandated refrigerant.
Seems they have solved the refrigerant problem. Since the temperature is 80's year round I'm hoping to have free hot water year round while running the AC the minimum. Did you ever have to turn on the heater, how large was your storage tank and did you run AC 24/7?
Seems they have solved the refrigerant problem. Since the temperature is 80's year round I'm hoping to have free hot water year round while running the AC the minimum. Did you ever have to turn on the heater, how large was your storage tank and did you run AC 24/7?
We turned the AC of in the fall and turned the water heater on at the same time. It was about a 40 gal tank.
I have seen 1920s houses in Miami with solar hot water heaters.
You really need to find someone who can run the numbers for your specific situation and climate. Anything else is just speculation on our part.
Yeah, I realize that and I sent in my request to the company. I also posted in the Hawaii forum. Just wanted to get some anecdotal info that would help me with questions for the salesman. Plus there are some smart people here that have already run the generic numbers so that can be a help.
So far it seems roughly that if I spend $100 a month to heat water and $150 to AC and I can get free hot water year round from AC then i am saving $100 a month so my payback would be less than 2 years. Or I could still spend $250 a month but use AC more.
@35c/kW-hr, you're spending ~ $1/d to heat water now....To provide free hot water with this new AC, it would have to be actually running (not just switched to the "on" position) ~ 12 hrs per day.
If your guess of $100/m to heat water is correct, then you're using 3x the average (150gal/d) so this unit couldn't keep up, even running continuously.
The specs on that unit says it uses ~1.5kW/hr of running, so it would cost you over $6/d to use it just heat 50 gal of water. If you lived in, say, AZ, where you need the AC that much, it's worth it. In HI, maybe not.
Last edited by guidoLaMoto; 01-21-2021 at 02:00 AM..
@35c/kW-hr, you're spending ~ $1/d to heat water now....To provide free hot water with this new AC, it would have to be actually running (not just switched to the "on" position) ~ 12 hrs per day.
If your guess of $100/m to heat water is correct, then you're using 3x the average (150gal/d) so this unit couldn't keep up, even running continuously.
The specs on that unit says it uses ~1.5kW/hr of running, so it would cost you over $6/d to use it just heat 50 gal of water. If you lived in, say, AZ, where you need the AC that much, it's worth it. In HI, maybe not.
From your article, An average water heater runs three hours daily. A 50-gallon, 5,500-watt water heater with a .90 EF and an electricity rate of $.16 per kilowatt hour will cost $781 to operate each year.
Just using this and using my $.35 KWH then my cost would be more than double the $781 at $.16 per kwh.
$781 X 2 = $1562/12= $130 month or $4.28 a day. My $100 a month was a guess but this seems like I was actually under guessing or am I off on the math?
Then 12 hours at 1,5 kwh = 18 kwh X $.35= $6.30 a day for 12 hours of AC and hot water. The actual charge is at least $10 a day and I don't think the AC use is 12 hours. So seems like I would save around $1300 a year and anticipate $2000 costs for the AC and new tank so a pretty quick payback.
What do you think? And Mahalo again.
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