Theoretically you could use a heat pump to heat water that would generate “waste cold”, but heat pumps typically don’t get nearly hot enough to heat water as much as a gas water heater does. I suppose one could be made but it would be very difficult, I think. It would need to use the ambient air in your house and suck enough heat out of it to heat your water, and if your house is about 72°F / 22°C and you want water at 130°F / 54°C (which is pretty typical) that seems like a challenge, especially since water is so much denser and has a higher heat capacity. I have a portable A/C with a heat pump and it starts to struggle to heat my apartment once it gets down to 45-50F outside and it struggles to cool once it gets above 95F.
the struggling to cool above 95F is definitely not a problem with heat pumps… they’re very common in australia (basically everywhere has heat pump cooling - cooling is pretty much a necessity during our summers) and we regularly get to 110F and above with no problem
GE currently sells a heat pump water heater on the market, I’m not sure if it uses resistive heating to supplement the heat pump
I have a portable A/C with a heat pump and it starts to struggle to heat my apartment once it gets down to 45-50F outside and it struggles to cool once it gets above 95F.
Your AC may be undersized if it doesn’t perform well in hot weather, also unfortunately many heat pumps aren’t optimized for extreme cold weather performance. Some are, it’s definitely not a failure of heat pumps in general, but you’ll only find those as permanent install units and they’re usually only sold up north.
Mine is general purpose, I suppose. I’m gauging its performance based on the temp of the air coming out of the unit, I think the room I’m using in is within range of it’s cooling/heating capabilities. Didn’t realize GE was making water heat pumps, nice.
I’m renting, I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got. The entire unit is inside and I have a huge tube going to a panel in my window. It works surprisingly well.
insulate the tube (wrapping towels around it helps), make sure it’s as short as possible for minimal surface area, and properly seal around the window where the interface is : duct tape will work; just make sure there’s no leakage of outside air back in
that should get you an extra ~2-4C of cooling depending on the size of your space and size of the unit
also, check all the seals around exterior windows and doors too. sealing up those with various methods (duct tape, draft protection on the underside of doors, etc) can get you another few degrees
not only does it improve how well the unit works, but it should save you money whenever you heat or cool your house
The unit actually came with an assortment of very helpful insulation accessories. The tube going to the window is double-walled and it came with sheets of adhesive insulating foam for wrapping it up as well as insulating sheets to stick over the window panel. I did end up using tape (not included) to seal the gaps around the window panel. I would highly recommend this unit to other renters.
Its all just about the relative compression ratio of the refrigerant. They make heat pump based water heaters that have external units that operate identically to air conditioners running in a heating mode.
Theoretically you could use a heat pump to heat water that would generate “waste cold”, but heat pumps typically don’t get nearly hot enough to heat water as much as a gas water heater does. I suppose one could be made but it would be very difficult, I think. It would need to use the ambient air in your house and suck enough heat out of it to heat your water, and if your house is about 72°F / 22°C and you want water at 130°F / 54°C (which is pretty typical) that seems like a challenge, especially since water is so much denser and has a higher heat capacity. I have a portable A/C with a heat pump and it starts to struggle to heat my apartment once it gets down to 45-50F outside and it struggles to cool once it gets above 95F.
the struggling to cool above 95F is definitely not a problem with heat pumps… they’re very common in australia (basically everywhere has heat pump cooling - cooling is pretty much a necessity during our summers) and we regularly get to 110F and above with no problem
GE currently sells a heat pump water heater on the market, I’m not sure if it uses resistive heating to supplement the heat pump
Your AC may be undersized if it doesn’t perform well in hot weather, also unfortunately many heat pumps aren’t optimized for extreme cold weather performance. Some are, it’s definitely not a failure of heat pumps in general, but you’ll only find those as permanent install units and they’re usually only sold up north.
Mine is general purpose, I suppose. I’m gauging its performance based on the temp of the air coming out of the unit, I think the room I’m using in is within range of it’s cooling/heating capabilities. Didn’t realize GE was making water heat pumps, nice.
Check if you can get some shade on your exterior unit. Also check that the area is well ventilated.
And as always, insulation is king.
I’m renting, I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got. The entire unit is inside and I have a huge tube going to a panel in my window. It works surprisingly well.
insulate the tube (wrapping towels around it helps), make sure it’s as short as possible for minimal surface area, and properly seal around the window where the interface is : duct tape will work; just make sure there’s no leakage of outside air back in
that should get you an extra ~2-4C of cooling depending on the size of your space and size of the unit
also, check all the seals around exterior windows and doors too. sealing up those with various methods (duct tape, draft protection on the underside of doors, etc) can get you another few degrees
not only does it improve how well the unit works, but it should save you money whenever you heat or cool your house
The unit actually came with an assortment of very helpful insulation accessories. The tube going to the window is double-walled and it came with sheets of adhesive insulating foam for wrapping it up as well as insulating sheets to stick over the window panel. I did end up using tape (not included) to seal the gaps around the window panel. I would highly recommend this unit to other renters.
oh that sounds ideal!
Yeah, those units have their limits. Better than nothing though.
Its all just about the relative compression ratio of the refrigerant. They make heat pump based water heaters that have external units that operate identically to air conditioners running in a heating mode.