Energy credit for water heater?

WestBentley · 01-16-2007, 10:14 AM

I'm a little confused. My fiance and I had to purchase a new water heater for our fixer upper and we thought we picked one that qualified for the energy credit - it's a 50 gallon with an energy efficients rating of .95 - well on further reading, it looks like you only get that credit if it's gas, propane, etc and ours is electric. They mention an electric heat pump water heater, but it's efficiency rating has to be 2.0

, so it's defintiely not any water heater we saw on sale at Lowes!!

We are trying to make the house as energy efficient as possible, and of course we want to be sure we get all the tax breaks that are offered! I just don't want to claim something and then find out I was wrong!

glennjanie · 01-16-2007, 10:33 AM

Hello WestBentley:
Electric water heaters claim high energy effciency but, in fact the electricity to power it was made by a 40% efficient steam turbine, most likely powered by coal.
When we can get that kind of efficency with gas, we have really done something. I saw the manufacture of a 98% efficient gas water heater in Johnson City, TN and you would not believe the things they had to go through to get that kind of efficiency.
I have an electric water heater hooked up to my Geo-Thermal heat pump which heats water with waste heat generated by the compressor and does a good job of it too. My thermostat on the water heater is set rather low and the heat pump raises the temperature another 15 degrees when it is running frequently, such as cold weather or hot weather. In the between times it is no more efficient than that coal burner up the river. We have cut our total energy bill from $179 a month to $85 for the last 10 years, and we don't worry about any government rebates.
Glenn

WestBentley · 01-16-2007, 10:51 AM

Well since we just bought this thing like a week ago, I doubt we'll be putting in one of your nifty little gadgets anytime soon - we still have to figure out where the money for the replacement flooring is coming from!

CraigFL · 01-16-2007, 10:56 AM

Sometime your electric company will give you a free water heater if you convert from gas....

WestBentley · 01-16-2007, 11:26 AM

Well the house is all electric, and we already bought the water heater. It was only when I was checking energystar.gov afterwards (my fiance had been the one looking it up before) that I noticed the designation between electric and gas. I thought it was odd, and I was hoping someone would have an answer *specifically* about the tax credit since the purchase is already said and done and we aren't going to be investing in anything different.