Technology Tuesdays: Heat Pumps in the Wild
We have been on the topic of heat pump water heaters for some time now. That’s mainly because we are all in on heat pump water heaters.
Why, you ask? And what exactly does that mean?
I don’t need to remind everyone of our collective quest toward energy efficiency and electrification. I also spent some time talking about heat pump water heaters, the technology, and their impact on the market last month. You can find that article here.
What I would like to focus on is my personal experience.
Every few years, the world of energy efficiency brings forth an EE measure that checks all of the boxes. It has amazing energy savings, it is easy to install, and there are really great rebates for those that want to take advantage of the opportunity early. The last big measure that checked all of these boxes was lighting.
Lighting, at one point, was completely free. The rebates were so good for lighting that they covered all of the cost of materials and installation. Lighting is also easy to install. For the most part, it is a matter of unscrewing one lamp and replacing it with a different, more energy-efficient lamp. In the case where incandescent lamps are replaced with LED lamps, the energy savings are so good that the project payback on investment was less than 1 year, in many cases.
Over the years, as new lighting technology has become more ubiquitous, so has the need for a new measure that checks all the boxes. That measure, currently, is heat pump water heaters and I have had the opportunity to experience being in the field, watching them being assessed, installed, and programmed.
Recently Willdan, PG&E’s implementor for the GK-12 program which offers the heat pump water heaters, invited me out into the field to get up close and personal with the heat pump water heaters I have been advocating to our partners to install.
Step one is the initial assessment. If there are no issues with access to the location, this takes about 10-15 minutes per site. The assessment includes verifying that there is a functioning natural gas water heater present to replace, the gallon capacity of that water heater, the capacity of the nearest electrical panel, and the distance between the water heater and the electrical panel. That’s it!
Step two is to review the proposal Willdan presents after the initial assessment. That proposal will contain energy savings estimates, estimated cost for the project, and amount of the incentive. In many cases, the incentive cancels out the cost of the project. That will not be the case forever, so we encourage partners to act NOW!
The final step is installation, and this is the most fun part of the process for me. I recently had the opportunity to ride along with the Willdan team and their installation crew and learned so much about the process. I had the opportunity to see what the heat pump water heaters look like when they are shipped in their packaging. I also had the opportunity to see all of the preparatory work necessary to install them.
A few things that particularly stuck with me from that days’ events:
One heat pump water heater installation, which was located at a city waste management office, presented some interesting access and electrical panel challenges. The first issue arose with the electrical run. This is a fancy-sounding term that the crews use to describe the distance they must take the electrical cords from the heat pump to the electrical panel in order to draw power. Generally, the team attempts to do this in the most inconspicuous way. In this particular case, hiding the wiring was impossible due to the fact that there was no safe place for the crew to walk in the ceiling crawl space. Therefore, the wiring had to be run along the outside of the building. This wiring would be encased in housing to protect it from the elements. Although this is not the first choice for running wiring, it is adequate and safe.
Another memorable moment occurred when the entire crew along with several of the city maintenance staff arrived at a site and no one was able to find a key to the water heater closet! This resulted in the crews having to break into the closet (with city personnel permission, of course) to access the water heater and begin work. Good thing they travel with a Sawzall! The lock would be replaced in a matter of minutes by maintenance staff, so there is no need to turn away a free water heater to save a lock.
As far as actual interaction with the equipment itself, crew leader Tom Kouris of Willdan did an amazing job of explaining, in detail, the innerworkings of the equipment. He made it very simple to understand how the crew determines that there is enough capacity in the electrical panel to accommodate the added load of the heat pump water heater. This is a matter of simple math and knowing a few tricks of the trade.
Tom was also kind enough to explain how easy it is to program them. With the touch of a button, the user can change the temperature set point and toggle between different modes to suit their needs. Additionally, heat pumps are equipped with cellular connectivity should the user choose to enroll in the demand response program which further increases their potential energy savings and shifts load away from peak times on the grid. Cellular is used instead of wi-fi due to the inconsistent nature of wi-fi availability. Also, because water heaters tend to be placed where wi-fi signals have difficulty traveling to.
Like lighting, the incentives for heat pump water heaters will not be around forever. In fact, we don’t know what they will look like beyond 2024 and partners are subscribing to the program quickly. Until then, we are pressing forward the heat pump water heaters and encouraging you, our partners, to hop on board as quickly as possible before the quest for a new EE measure that “checks all the boxes” begins its cycle all over again.
The savings never stop!
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