I compared our mid-April to mid-May NV Energy bills for 2019, 2020 and 2021 to get an idea of how our new hot water heater affected our energy use. The good news is that we used 59% less natural gas! We used an average of 34 therms in 2019 and 2020, and only 14 in 2021! So, it made a huge difference in our natural gas use.

Our use of electricity was up about 130 kWh from this time last year. The new hot water heater likely made up about 80 kWh of the increase. The other 50 kWh was likely due to a colder May this year and increased travel in our LEAF. It was about 9 degrees colder in May, 2021 than in May, 2020, so we used more of our booster electric heaters this year. Our parents are needing more help these days, so we are traveling more in the LEAF to assist them.

We are loving this new hot water heater! We’ve pretty much left it on the Heat Pump Only setting, which is the most efficient. This gives us the same hot water we are used to having with our old system. It works fine for the two of us, as long as we don’t take back-to-back showers, which we don’t usually do. If we have a higher use day, or have guests, we can set it to Hybrid or Electric mode. If we set it in Electric mode, it will automatically revert to Heat Pump Only in 12 hours.

An extra added bonus as we get into the warmer months is it keeps the garage cooler, because it takes the warm air from the garage to heat the water, expelling cold air out of the tank. It does make a bit of noise when it is in operation, so I can see that you may not want it inside your house. It works great in the garage. So far we haven’t noticed any condensation coming out of the unit in our dry climate.

Our next adventure will be adding a heat pump heater and A/C unit, so stay tuned!