Home Electric: the tortured path

[Jeffrey Floor]

Our place was pre-electrified, in part (long-time rental property with  in-wall heaters), but we've been nudging it toward a more sustainable footing by:

-Mitsubishi split (ductless) heat pump. One outdoor unit, three indoor units (one in our apartment and one each in the two units above us). Installed by Greenwood Heating. I liked working with them because they were willing to be flexible with things like permitting (ahem) and several oddities of our building. Plus one of their crew had to heroically shimmy through our tight attic space to run the lines, and he wasn't a small guy.

-PV array: 8.3 kw with 26 LG 350 w panels and a Solar Edge inverter. Installed by Artisan Electric. I liked working with them, and since it was the third time in eleven years I asked them to gin up a quote, I didn't feel right about going with someone else. Their crew was great, but the only weak part of their offering was the engineering, which never really validated their preference for a flat installation (flat TPO roof). I'm having serious remorse about not pushing them in a timely manner to a proper slope.

-Induction range: we've had this for something like 9-10 years (i've lost track, and I usually underestimate how many years have passed). It's a GE, and I love it. We had to swap out a number of pots & pans, mainly ditching aluminum (which might have a side benefit of lowered Alzheimer's risk). Cast iron is pretty reliable and who doesn't like to cook with cast iron? (Pro-tip for cookware shopping: bring a magnet).

Other measures:

-No grass: got rid of the last bit of lawn on the property a few years back. Kids can play in the damn park if they need grass.

-No car: we had been driving on home-brewed biodiesel, which was a gas, so to speak, but we ditched the car altogether last summer, and it's been a great year without. Just one less big, onerous, complex, money-pit to worry about. Even with the cost of occasional uber rides, car-share fees (it was a bummer when car2go died, but that coincided with the pandemic so who cares; besides, now there's Gig), and car rental for road trips, we're spending about half what we did to have exclusive car ownership. As you might guess, I think the current model of private car ownership is horrible.

On the long term docket:

-Swapping out the gas-fired tankless water heater. That Sanden unit sounds pretty cool, Allan. 

-swapping out the gas-fired dryer

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[Matthew veloz]

Rad! Mechanical engineer here. We just installed a heat pump water heater ourselves; let me know if you'd like any help. After a rebate we paid $700, plus ~$300 in accessories to expand and move electrical, ducts, and plumbing bits. Over the summer we paid $4 per month for hot water, versus $40 for an old gas water heater. I anticipate we'll get up to around $20/mo in the winter. After the rebate, the water heater should pay for itself in about three years woot.

[Jeffrey Floor]

Matthew: what make/model heat pump water heater - also the Sanden? Our gas bills to run the gas-fired tankless plus the clothes dryer run about $20/month, so the payback probably won't be as spectacular as it was for your situation.

JF

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[Mike O'Brien]

Yes Matthew - please share the details of what model and where you got it. 

The Sanden looks awesome but the price is pretty steep, at least off the shelf. 

Thanks, Mike

Mike O'Brien 

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On Oct 11, 2020, at 9:21 PM, Jeffrey Floor <jsf...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Matthew veloz]

We got the very democratic Rheem Performance Platinum hpwh from Home Depot. Unlike the Sanden unit it does have refrigerant (R-410A) but it's self-contained so it's got a small charge. That said, I didn't take the time to figure out the gwp or carbon difference between the R-410A in this unit versus running a gas water heater. Nor do I know what happens to the refrigerant at the end of the unit's life. Any ideas on what the responsible math there is?