Tap Into Savings With a Heat Pump Water Heater

Water heating is a big operating expense for a variety of businesses. High-efficiency heat pump water heaters are a smart investment that can significantly reduce those costs.

Water heating is a significant operating expense for a variety of businesses, including restaurants, laundry operations and lodging facilities. One of the best measures you can take to reduce this expense is to upgrade to heat pump water heaters. These high-efficiency units are a smart investment that can significantly reduce your water heating costs over the equipment's lifetime.

Moving heat

Heat pump water heaters use electricity 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 water heaters.

Heat pumps work like refrigerators in reverse. While a refrigerator pulls heat from inside the box and into the surrounding room, a heat pump water heater takes heat from the surrounding air and dumps it (at a higher temperature) into a tank to heat water.

You can purchase a stand-alone unit or install a system that combines heating, cooling and water heating. These combination systems pull their heat indoors from the outdoor air in the winter and from the indoor air in the summer. Because they remove heat from the air, any type of air-source heat pump system works more efficiently in a warm climate.

Energy efficiency and operating cost

The efficiency of a water heater is measured by uniform energy factor (UEF), which measures the amount of hot water you get compared to the amount of power or fuel used. The higher the uniform energy factor, the more efficient the water heater will be. Heat pump water heaters have a much higher uniform energy factor than conventional units; a typical heat pump unit has a UEF of 2.75, compared to 0.70 for a high-efficiency gas storage system.

It's important to remember that a higher energy factor does not always mean lower operating costs. When looking at heat pump water heaters, consider the size of the unit, your water heating needs and energy prices.

If you choose to install a heat pump water heater, purchase an ENERGY STAR®-certified unit. ENERGY STAR water heaters are more efficient than standard units. Go greener with LADWP by switching your existing gas equipment to all electric and receive electrification incentives through our Business Offering for Sustainable Solutions Program (BOSS).