We recently had an A.O. Smith version of this water heater installed. We have traditional grid power. I estimate it uses around 25 cents a day average in power in the hybrid mode according to its app. Our KWH rate varies from 12 to 17 cents an hour at what appears to be the power company's discretion.
Look into mini split heat pump next to run on excess solar. It will offset some work from your central hvac unit and save you energy. Cooling in the summer and heating in the winter but probably not much excess solar in the winter. I like that you went with standalone offgrid system. You get freedom to tinker around, no utility agreement with solar fees and you get instant and free power backup for your inverter loads. I do the same at my house. I feed lower heating element on my water heater direct with 48v DC via a plug (not a relay or thermostat). Upper element is wired to the grid. Excess solar I feed to my house loads via an Enphase micro inverter powered by the battery. It is experimental and very manual process for now but I plan to automate in the future. Dumps 5 kWh per day into house loads without backfeeding the grid since house loads always higher than 240 watts the micro supplies. Utility co does not need to know.
Thanks for the comment. With the HPWH, my basement is a degree or two cooler than it used to be. Not as cool as I was expecting. Right now the basement is 65deg while the rest of the house is 70deg.
Have read over the years the heatpumps can be unrelieable so leave the old heater in place as downtime insurance should you have any warentee claims on the new unit. Sounds like you have the correct mode where the electric element is not used to boost the heatpump. You will be able to choose 50 odd volt elements for the old heater upper and lower, If allready plumbed i would still do the dump as this will lesson the runtime of the compressor giving longer life. Enjoy the hot water from the sun.
A man is respected more when he admits his mistakes, I'm glad you uploaded it. Great video and great installation!
Power electronics generally work more efficiently if the room is cooler, so your EG4 converter may work a bit better all year as an added bonus.
I found your video extremely helpful from start to finish. Thanks so much.
Getting ready to do my DIY install, yours helped !
Thank you so much you share this video step by step
We recently had an A.O. Smith version of this water heater installed. We have traditional grid power. I estimate it uses around 25 cents a day average in power in the hybrid mode according to its app. Our KWH rate varies from 12 to 17 cents an hour at what appears to be the power company's discretion.
Look into mini split heat pump next to run on excess solar. It will offset some work from your central hvac unit and save you energy. Cooling in the summer and heating in the winter but probably not much excess solar in the winter. I like that you went with standalone offgrid system. You get freedom to tinker around, no utility agreement with solar fees and you get instant and free power backup for your inverter loads. I do the same at my house. I feed lower heating element on my water heater direct with 48v DC via a plug (not a relay or thermostat). Upper element is wired to the grid. Excess solar I feed to my house loads via an Enphase micro inverter powered by the battery. It is experimental and very manual process for now but I plan to automate in the future. Dumps 5 kWh per day into house loads without backfeeding the grid since house loads always higher than 240 watts the micro supplies. Utility co does not need to know.
You should keep the old water heater just in case the new one breaks down. No point in removing it I suppose :).
Did you notice a temperature drop, If so how much cooler would you say?
Thanks for the comment. With the HPWH, my basement is a degree or two cooler than it used to be. Not as cool as I was expecting. Right now the basement is 65deg while the rest of the house is 70deg.
Have read over the years the heatpumps can be unrelieable so leave the old heater in place as downtime insurance should you have any warentee claims on the new unit. Sounds like you have the correct mode where the electric element is not used to boost the heatpump. You will be able to choose 50 odd volt elements for the old heater upper and lower, If allready plumbed i would still do the dump as this will lesson the runtime of the compressor giving longer life. Enjoy the hot water from the sun.
Get rid of the old water heater and add a thermostatic mixing valve.