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Comment by hnburnsy | Hacker News Reader

Heat pump water heater (hybrid/HPWH, e.g., 50–65 gallon equivalent): Unit prices range from ~$1,500–$3,000+ (most common models $2,000–$2,500), with total installed costs $2,500–$5,000 (higher if electrical upgrades or space mods needed). Average retrofit/install often lands around $3,000–$4,000.

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And for small households they virtually never pay for themselves before they die or need expensive maintenance... It only makes sense if you use a lot of water or if your electricity is very expensive. In my case it's even worse, with solar panels and self sufficiency they literally cannot break even

Electrical upgrades are almost always required, and price is more like 7k-9k around here. It's going to be seriously painful for a lot of people.

If you were in the market for an resistive electric heat pump, you likely had the service for it already. A heat pump version will almost always require less power.

My bad, read too quickly. I was thinking of the forced change over from gas water heaters, which is already happening in the California Bay Area and will only expand.

If you currently have an electric resistive water heater, a heat pump water heater with the same heating capacity will use 3-4x less power, which means you can use a much smaller circuit.

A 6kW 240V EWH uses 25A, it’ll need #8 wire and a 35A or 40A breaker.

An equivalent HPHW would use 1.5kW at 240V, or 6.25A. You can use #14s and a 15A breaker.

Ehh 120v models exist. My 65 gal runs fine on a standard 20a breaker.

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