Page 22 - Oil and Energy-February 2013

22 • OIL&ENERGY
Diversification
Heat Pump
Water Heaters
Fill a Niche Nicely
By Bruce Marshall, Emerson Swan
IN A PREVIOUS ARTICLE I WROTE ABOUT
the need for today’s Oilheat dealer to diver-
sify into other areas. Why not start where
you already work … in the basement.
We like to bill ourselves as “Energy
Efficiency Specialists,” but rather than taking
the traditional approach of making the
heating system more efficient, why not take
a look at the domestic water heating system.
Homeowners with homes heated with
forced warm air have few options for making
domestic hot water. Water heaters account
for 14% to 25% of the total energy con-
sumed in typical home today. On average,
they use more energy than a household’s
refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washer
and dryer combined.
LIMITED OPTIONS
If there is no gas available, the only
options are electric resistance water heaters
or oil-fired water heaters. Oil-fired water
heaters are fairly efficient in terms of com-
bustion efficiency and have a good recovery
rate due to a higher BTU input than gas, but
they generally do not have a long lifespan.
An electric water heater is arguably the
most expensive way to generate hot water
due to the high cost of electricity in the
Northeast. Electric rates in the six New
England states are among the highest in
the continental United States. A standard
electric water heater has an EF rating of
between .87 and .92. Hybrid water heaters
have an EF rating of up to 2.4.
Heat pump water heaters use elec-
tricity 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 standalone
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.
Heat pump water heaters require installa-
tion in locations that remain in the 40º to 90ºF
range with 70ºF being ideal year-round and
provide at least 1,000 cubic feet of air space
around the water heater. Cool exhaust air can
be exhausted to the room or outdoors.
Install them in a space with excess
heat, such as a furnace room. Heat pump
water heaters will not operate efficiently in
a cold space. They tend to cool the spaces
they are in and act like dehumidifiers in the
basement. Because these systems generate a
considerable amount of condensate, it will
be necessary to add a drain or a condensate
pump to the installation.
SLOW TO HEAT
The type of heat pump that hybrid water
heaters use can’t heat water as quickly as
electric resistance elements. While the
electric resistance elements in a typical
water heater can heat 20 gallons per hour, a
heat pump can only manage about 8 gallons
per hour (or even less, if the ambient air
temperature is below 68°F).
To make up for this basic deficiency in
heat-pump performance, heat-pump water
heaters are equipped with electric resistance
elements that are energized whenever the
heat pump can’t keep up with the demand
for hot water. This feature improves the
performance of the unit but introduces an
energy penalty.
It is recommended that attention be
paid to lifestyle of the end user with regard
to their use of hot water. It is best to spread
water use over as long a period as possible
as this will allow the heat pump sufficient
time to bring the water back up to tempera-
ture. It is recommended that you install the
largest tank available, as this will maximize
your storage potential.
Most heat-pump water heaters have
controls that allow a homeowner to choose
one of three modes of operation:
• Heat-pump-only mode (a mode that is
energy-efficient, but that doesn’t allow
long showers).
• Hybrid mode (heat-pump operation
plus electric resistance backup).
• Electric-resistance-only mode (a mode that
you could choose during cold weather,
when you might not want the appliance
to cool the space where it is located).
Heat pump water heater systems typi-
cally have higher initial costs than conven-
tional storage water heaters. However, they
have lower operating costs, and coupled
with utility rebates, their higher purchase
and installation prices can be offset.
For customers that are concerned about
the environment, a hybrid water heater will
reduce carbon emissions by as much as 62
percent compared to a standard electric
model.
IDENTIFY YOUR CANDIDATES
Start by identifying your customers
who have forced warm air, then determine
how they make their domestic hot water.
Once you have identified these customers,
reach out to them with consumer literature
readily available from water heater manu-
facturers such as A.O. Smith, State, Rheem
and others.
Get up-to-date rebate information from
the local utility or go towww.dsireusa.org
and get all the latest rebate, tax credit, and
incentive information and make sure you
include those in your proposals. The 2012
utility rebates were high enough to bring the
payback period down to a couple of years.
It’s time for the oil dealer to start
thinking outside the box and come up with
innovative and creative ways to generate
new revenue streams.