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I've been keeping an eye on heat pump water heaters for awhile, but right now they mostly make sense in warm climates. The big problem is they're still special

I've been keeping an eye on heat pump water heaters for awhile, but right now they mostly make sense in warm climates. The big problem is they're still specialty products and marked up like crazy, but also they tend to use cheap components which makes them loud and prone to failure. If you run A/C for the majority of the year then they pay themselves back reasonably quick, barring early failure, but in colder climates they make your house work that much harder to keep the space warm. The most optimistic hope is that the government mandate will force enough demand that manufacturers can enjoy some economies of scale and actually try to compete on price. I don't think this will happen anytime soon.

Tor3 8mo ago
I had a heat pump installed in 2010. In a cold climate. Only used for heating. It paid for itself extremely quickly - less than three years. It's still going strong, in 2026. It's important to maintain it regularly, i.e. deep cleaning every two years or so. The first time I got a company to do it for me, and the technician taught me how to do it all by myself, so that's what I do. In any case having a professional doing it wasn't expensive either. And I clean the dust filters (very easy) every second week or so.
- stuaxo 8mo ago
  What did you heat with before?
  - manmal 8mo ago
    Certainly not gas or oil, which are still cheaper to heat with than heat pumps.
    - tempestn 8mo ago
      Modern heat pumps are cheaper than oil for heating just about everywhere. They're cheaper than natural gas in most places, unless electricity prices where you live are particularly high.
      - zobzu 8mo ago
        in CA my natural gas is far cheaper than the heat pump sadly
        yurishimo 8mo ago
        In western europe today, I spend €10+ per day to heat my home (17 degrees mind you) with a gas powered boiler for radiators. I can run my mini-split on 18 degrees all day for a couple of euros. I moved here from the US in 2022 right after the full scale invasion of Ukraine so natural gas prices skyrocketed overnight. I don't really understand what the aversion is to forced air climate control here other than "it's not as comfortable" which from what I've gleaned from other people is taken to mean noise/moving air/humidity. Coming from the southern US, I find all of those points to be a non-issue for me. I've slept with a fan on my entire life, so if I can shave off 50% of my heating costs for a few decibels of fan noise, sign me up!
        manmal 8mo ago
        I don't buy your numbers. I'm in Western Europe myself, and have run those numbers multiple times. Kilowatt for kilowatt (COP adjusted) gas is always cheaper than a heat pump.
      - manmal 8mo ago
        Yes, and many places have high electricity costs. And btw, those are hard to foresee, so if you make a long term investment into a heat pump that is supposed to last 20-25 years, you have no idea how electricity prices will affect you. That's obviously true for gas and oil as well. I do concede that my original point was too blanket-y. I have a heat pump btw., with COP 4.5 (below ground). Costs me EUR 2.5 - 3k per year to heat the house.
    - Tor3 8mo ago
      Hm? Around here oil was never been in the same (low) order of magnitude. Those who installed oil heaters many decades ago regretted it quickly. And it's been illegal to use them for a couple of decades as well now. Gas has never been an option in my region, there's no infrastructure for that. We have used gas in Japan until now, but even that we'll be phasing out (I live in two places)
      - darkteflon 8mo ago
        I’m in Japan too. Could you name the model you ended up going with? My heating bill in the winter is insane.
        Tor3 8mo ago
        The model is not yet decided, we're in the finalizing stage with the building company. What we have been focusing on is a well insulated house, unlike the old one which has no insulation at all.. if we tried to heat that it would not only be extremely expensive, it's impossible to even heat the small bathroom with an electric heater. So instead you kind of get used to it. Took me a year to stop feeling like I was freezing, at 4C in the bathroom on February mornings. We have been using a gas heater (plug in the floor) in certain places on the ground floor, but we limited that as well. So, with an insulated, small house, we believe we will be able to keep the costs down, using heat pumps and heat exchangers, plus solar and battery (using the car battery).
        darkteflon 8mo ago
        Thanks for your reply! We’re about to finally replace our windows with double-layer glass. Hoping this makes a big difference.
      - manmal 8mo ago
        > Those who installed oil heaters many decades ago regretted it quickly. That really depends on the oil heater, no? You can't compare a heater from the 70s with a modern one. That's like saying I don't drive modern cars because cars in the 70s were unsafe and stank.
    - pjc50 8mo ago
      Oil heating has usually been the most expensive way to heat in the UK, on par with resistive-electric.
      - manmal 8mo ago
        That's completely wrong. Electricity (standard): 33.34 p/kWh Heating oil (gas oil): 10.54 p/kWh Kerosene: 6.20 p/kWh Mains gas: 7.68 p/kWh https://www.nottenergy.com/advice-and-tools/project-energy-cost-comparison https://www.nottenergy.com/advice-and-tools/project-energy-c...
  - Tor3 8mo ago
    Electric resistive heating, which is the main power source here (all hydro, until recently). Plus a wood stove in case of power cuts. We used that one quite a bit during cold spells before the heatpump came along. Now not much at all.
- snuxoll 8mo ago
  Installed mini-splits to replace the propane stove that heated my house, DIY job, so all it cost was the units themselves and some materials. Propane bill (no natural gas, town of 500) from Oct 24 to Feb 25 (installed the mini splits that month) was $1200, for just heating. My mini-splits are on a dedicated sub panel with an Emporia Vue 3 energy monitor. $604 in electricity consumption, and that includes air conditioning over the summer months. For what it’s worth, our winter weather averages 25-35F with the occasional few days dipping to tens, single digits, and the occasional -10 freak; but these units just BARELY have a HSPF4 rating to classify as “cold climate” models. Still going to pay for themselves in 6 years without any tax credits, and 4 or so since I still installed them when they were available.
matwood 8mo ago
I think a heat pump only for water isn't the right way to go. In the EU, new systems I see use a single heat pump for all heating and cooling in the house including heating water. I do miss my natural gas on-demand water heater from when I lived in the states though. Unlimited hot water was nice, and it took up almost zero space.
- spockz 8mo ago
  Which models are you looking at? I was still quoted separate pumps for floor heating and a boiler with the pump built in taking the energy from the air two years ago. Is it something from nefit by any chance?
  - toomuchtodo 8mo ago
    This is promising. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/29/samsung-releases-new-all-in-one-heat-pump-for-residential-use/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/29/samsung-releases-new-... > The South Korean giant [Samsung] said its new EHS All-in-One provides air heating and cooling, floor heating, and hot water from a single outdoor unit. It can supply hot water up to 65 C in below-zero weather. > Dubbed EHS All-in-One, the system provides air heating and cooling, floor heating, and hot water from a single outdoor unit. It is initially released for the European market, with a Korean rollout expected within a year. “It delivers stable performance across diverse weather conditions. It can supply hot water up to 65 C even in below-zero weather and is designed to operate heating even in severe cold down to -25 C,” the company said in a statement. “The system also uses the R32 refrigerant, which has a substantially lower impact on global warming compared with the older R410A refrigerant.”
- thunfischbrot 8mo ago
  Afaik heat-pumps in the EU can provide unlimited hot water–what am I missing?
  - Y-bar 8mo ago
    Geothermal (and airbased) pumps theoretically do not have unlimited heating capacity. For example my pump (Daikin Altherma Geo 3) has a 180 litre water tank so it can ”only” supply 180 litres hot water at 65 degrees Celsius and takes about a minute to heat two additional lites. So if I want to quickly scald myself in a 400 litre pool at fifty degrees I can’t. But if I had a gas heater that would be possible!
stuaxo 8mo ago
They use them a lot in Norway, it's hardly warm there.
ortusdux 8mo ago
I'm in the northern US and am very happy with mine. I self-installed with a county rebate, so the total cost was a Saturday and $700. My old electric unit was EPA rated for $450/year, and the new one has averaged $170/year over 4 years, so I've already broken even.
gwbas1c 8mo ago
You're about 20 years behind. My heat pump is working great at 0F. It's 7 years old.
- baggachipz 8mo ago
  heat pump for house !== heat pump for hot water
  - karussell 8mo ago
    Why not?
  - Youden 8mo ago
    I don't know what it's like where you're living but here in Switzerland it's completely normal to have one heat pump that does both. Here there's a lot of floor heating, which also uses water, so you usually just run one loop to the "boiler" (a water tank with a copper loop for the water from the heat pump to circulate through) and one through the floor and have a valve to switch which is running through the heat pump. I have one of these: https://cta.ch/en/private/products/ah-i-eco-innen https://cta.ch/en/private/products/ah-i-eco-innen I got it in October so most of the time I've had it has been <10C. It's produced 806.3 kWh of heating for hot water and 6587.2 kWh for the floor heating. It consumed 302.7 kWh and 1801.4 kWh respectively, for a COP of 2.66 and 3.66.
    - jandrese 8mo ago
      That's a different kettle of fish entirely, largely because with the heat pump water heater they're pulling the heat from the inside of your house, forcing you to move it twice when it is cold out. With a combined unit you only move it once, as the other side of the unit is outside. That's why they're so great for warm climates though. The water heater also cools your house, especially as that heat is then lost down the drain. Everybody in the south should be jumping on these.
  - gwbas1c 8mo ago
    There's a lot of different heating systems: If your heating system uses hot water at any point, (baseboards, hydro-air, underfloor, ect,) using a single heat pump makes a LOT of sense. Personally, I prefer an air-source heat pump hot water tank. It significantly dehumidifies my basement.
themafia 8mo ago
> government mandate will force enough demand that manufacturers can enjoy some economies of scale So you want the government to pick winners and you want to do business with a monopoly? This is the opposite of what you would want. If the product saves me money, and it's _actually_ better, I will buy it in a heartbeat. If you're involving the government it's because one of those things isn't true.
- enaaem 8mo ago
  Gas infrastructure is expensive to build and maintain. Often times with tax money. What tend to happen in Europe is that they phase out gas by not building gas lines for new development.
lizknope 8mo ago
Ask This Old House had an episode literally yesterday where they installed a \ solar-assisted split heat pump water heater. There is a component that goes on the outside of the house but not on the roof which simplifies installation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqyAWkXXt3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqyAWkXXt3A https://www.neshw.com/residential/solar-heat-pump-water-heater/ https://www.neshw.com/residential/solar-heat-pump-water-heat...
newhotelowner 8mo ago
They marketing like it's an expensive tech, but it's pretty cheap. We have been buying heat pump PTAC for the hotels for last 20 years, and price difference is usually 5% between with and without heat pump. Seems like all companies are colluding with each other for marking up prices.
tempestn 8mo ago
We somewhat accidentally ended up with a good combo: we have a ventless heat pump dryer, and a heat pump water heater, also in the laundry room. So when doing laundry, the water heater cools the room while the dryer heats it, so they roughly cancel out. As an aside, HP dryers are really elegant tech, and it's a shame they're not more common. They use the heat pump not just to heat the air in the dryer, but also to condense the moisture back out of it, so just the water can be drained away instead of needing to exhaust the air outside. So you need much less energy overall, and you don't need a dryer vent. The only downside is they're a bit slower, but ours has a resistive backup option for when you need clothes dry asap, so really it's just price.
- zhivota 8mo ago
  Heat pump dryers work at a much lower heat as well since much of the heating of a traditional dryer is lost out of the vent. The heat pump condenses the water out of the hot air so you don't lose the heat. I've stopped needing to sort my clothes out as a result, I used to hate putting synthetics in a regular dryer because they get worn out so fast that way.
- jonstewart 8mo ago
  I bought a Samsung HP dryer a few years ago and it'd be great except for a terrible design flaw where lint gets trapped in its heat sink fins, turning into a soggy mess.
  - tempestn 8mo ago
    We have a Whirlpool that I love, but they discontinued it a couple years ago with no replacement, and I can't imagine why. I guess most people just shop on price, so it didn't sell. Like I said, a shame.

Tor3 8mo ago

I had a heat pump installed in 2010. In a cold climate. Only used for heating. It paid for itself extremely quickly - less than three years. It's still going strong, in 2026. It's important to maintain it regularly, i.e. deep cleaning every two years or so. The first time I got a company to do it for me, and the technician taught me how to do it all by myself, so that's what I do. In any case having a professional doing it wasn't expensive either. And I clean the dust filters (very easy) every second week or so.

stuaxo 8mo ago
What did you heat with before?
- manmal 8mo ago
  Certainly not gas or oil, which are still cheaper to heat with than heat pumps.
  - tempestn 8mo ago
    Modern heat pumps are cheaper than oil for heating just about everywhere. They're cheaper than natural gas in most places, unless electricity prices where you live are particularly high.
    - zobzu 8mo ago
      in CA my natural gas is far cheaper than the heat pump sadly
      - yurishimo 8mo ago
        In western europe today, I spend €10+ per day to heat my home (17 degrees mind you) with a gas powered boiler for radiators. I can run my mini-split on 18 degrees all day for a couple of euros. I moved here from the US in 2022 right after the full scale invasion of Ukraine so natural gas prices skyrocketed overnight. I don't really understand what the aversion is to forced air climate control here other than "it's not as comfortable" which from what I've gleaned from other people is taken to mean noise/moving air/humidity. Coming from the southern US, I find all of those points to be a non-issue for me. I've slept with a fan on my entire life, so if I can shave off 50% of my heating costs for a few decibels of fan noise, sign me up!
        manmal 8mo ago
        I don't buy your numbers. I'm in Western Europe myself, and have run those numbers multiple times. Kilowatt for kilowatt (COP adjusted) gas is always cheaper than a heat pump.
    - manmal 8mo ago
      Yes, and many places have high electricity costs. And btw, those are hard to foresee, so if you make a long term investment into a heat pump that is supposed to last 20-25 years, you have no idea how electricity prices will affect you. That's obviously true for gas and oil as well. I do concede that my original point was too blanket-y. I have a heat pump btw., with COP 4.5 (below ground). Costs me EUR 2.5 - 3k per year to heat the house.
  - Tor3 8mo ago
    Hm? Around here oil was never been in the same (low) order of magnitude. Those who installed oil heaters many decades ago regretted it quickly. And it's been illegal to use them for a couple of decades as well now. Gas has never been an option in my region, there's no infrastructure for that. We have used gas in Japan until now, but even that we'll be phasing out (I live in two places)
    - darkteflon 8mo ago
      I’m in Japan too. Could you name the model you ended up going with? My heating bill in the winter is insane.
      - Tor3 8mo ago
        The model is not yet decided, we're in the finalizing stage with the building company. What we have been focusing on is a well insulated house, unlike the old one which has no insulation at all.. if we tried to heat that it would not only be extremely expensive, it's impossible to even heat the small bathroom with an electric heater. So instead you kind of get used to it. Took me a year to stop feeling like I was freezing, at 4C in the bathroom on February mornings. We have been using a gas heater (plug in the floor) in certain places on the ground floor, but we limited that as well. So, with an insulated, small house, we believe we will be able to keep the costs down, using heat pumps and heat exchangers, plus solar and battery (using the car battery).
        darkteflon 8mo ago
        Thanks for your reply! We’re about to finally replace our windows with double-layer glass. Hoping this makes a big difference.
    - manmal 8mo ago
      > Those who installed oil heaters many decades ago regretted it quickly. That really depends on the oil heater, no? You can't compare a heater from the 70s with a modern one. That's like saying I don't drive modern cars because cars in the 70s were unsafe and stank.
  - pjc50 8mo ago
    Oil heating has usually been the most expensive way to heat in the UK, on par with resistive-electric.
    - manmal 8mo ago
      That's completely wrong. Electricity (standard): 33.34 p/kWh Heating oil (gas oil): 10.54 p/kWh Kerosene: 6.20 p/kWh Mains gas: 7.68 p/kWh https://www.nottenergy.com/advice-and-tools/project-energy-cost-comparison https://www.nottenergy.com/advice-and-tools/project-energy-c...
- Tor3 8mo ago
  Electric resistive heating, which is the main power source here (all hydro, until recently). Plus a wood stove in case of power cuts. We used that one quite a bit during cold spells before the heatpump came along. Now not much at all.
snuxoll 8mo ago
Installed mini-splits to replace the propane stove that heated my house, DIY job, so all it cost was the units themselves and some materials. Propane bill (no natural gas, town of 500) from Oct 24 to Feb 25 (installed the mini splits that month) was $1200, for just heating. My mini-splits are on a dedicated sub panel with an Emporia Vue 3 energy monitor. $604 in electricity consumption, and that includes air conditioning over the summer months. For what it’s worth, our winter weather averages 25-35F with the occasional few days dipping to tens, single digits, and the occasional -10 freak; but these units just BARELY have a HSPF4 rating to classify as “cold climate” models. Still going to pay for themselves in 6 years without any tax credits, and 4 or so since I still installed them when they were available.

matwood 8mo ago

I think a heat pump only for water isn't the right way to go. In the EU, new systems I see use a single heat pump for all heating and cooling in the house including heating water. I do miss my natural gas on-demand water heater from when I lived in the states though. Unlimited hot water was nice, and it took up almost zero space.

spockz 8mo ago
Which models are you looking at? I was still quoted separate pumps for floor heating and a boiler with the pump built in taking the energy from the air two years ago. Is it something from nefit by any chance?
- toomuchtodo 8mo ago
  This is promising. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/29/samsung-releases-new-all-in-one-heat-pump-for-residential-use/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/29/samsung-releases-new-... > The South Korean giant [Samsung] said its new EHS All-in-One provides air heating and cooling, floor heating, and hot water from a single outdoor unit. It can supply hot water up to 65 C in below-zero weather. > Dubbed EHS All-in-One, the system provides air heating and cooling, floor heating, and hot water from a single outdoor unit. It is initially released for the European market, with a Korean rollout expected within a year. “It delivers stable performance across diverse weather conditions. It can supply hot water up to 65 C even in below-zero weather and is designed to operate heating even in severe cold down to -25 C,” the company said in a statement. “The system also uses the R32 refrigerant, which has a substantially lower impact on global warming compared with the older R410A refrigerant.”
thunfischbrot 8mo ago
Afaik heat-pumps in the EU can provide unlimited hot water–what am I missing?
- Y-bar 8mo ago
  Geothermal (and airbased) pumps theoretically do not have unlimited heating capacity. For example my pump (Daikin Altherma Geo 3) has a 180 litre water tank so it can ”only” supply 180 litres hot water at 65 degrees Celsius and takes about a minute to heat two additional lites. So if I want to quickly scald myself in a 400 litre pool at fifty degrees I can’t. But if I had a gas heater that would be possible!

stuaxo 8mo ago

They use them a lot in Norway, it's hardly warm there.

ortusdux 8mo ago

I'm in the northern US and am very happy with mine. I self-installed with a county rebate, so the total cost was a Saturday and $700. My old electric unit was EPA rated for $450/year, and the new one has averaged $170/year over 4 years, so I've already broken even.

gwbas1c 8mo ago

You're about 20 years behind. My heat pump is working great at 0F. It's 7 years old.

baggachipz 8mo ago
heat pump for house !== heat pump for hot water
- karussell 8mo ago
  Why not?
- Youden 8mo ago
  I don't know what it's like where you're living but here in Switzerland it's completely normal to have one heat pump that does both. Here there's a lot of floor heating, which also uses water, so you usually just run one loop to the "boiler" (a water tank with a copper loop for the water from the heat pump to circulate through) and one through the floor and have a valve to switch which is running through the heat pump. I have one of these: https://cta.ch/en/private/products/ah-i-eco-innen https://cta.ch/en/private/products/ah-i-eco-innen I got it in October so most of the time I've had it has been <10C. It's produced 806.3 kWh of heating for hot water and 6587.2 kWh for the floor heating. It consumed 302.7 kWh and 1801.4 kWh respectively, for a COP of 2.66 and 3.66.
  - jandrese 8mo ago
    That's a different kettle of fish entirely, largely because with the heat pump water heater they're pulling the heat from the inside of your house, forcing you to move it twice when it is cold out. With a combined unit you only move it once, as the other side of the unit is outside. That's why they're so great for warm climates though. The water heater also cools your house, especially as that heat is then lost down the drain. Everybody in the south should be jumping on these.
- gwbas1c 8mo ago
  There's a lot of different heating systems: If your heating system uses hot water at any point, (baseboards, hydro-air, underfloor, ect,) using a single heat pump makes a LOT of sense. Personally, I prefer an air-source heat pump hot water tank. It significantly dehumidifies my basement.

themafia 8mo ago

> government mandate will force enough demand that manufacturers can enjoy some economies of scale So you want the government to pick winners and you want to do business with a monopoly? This is the opposite of what you would want. If the product saves me money, and it's _actually_ better, I will buy it in a heartbeat. If you're involving the government it's because one of those things isn't true.

enaaem 8mo ago
Gas infrastructure is expensive to build and maintain. Often times with tax money. What tend to happen in Europe is that they phase out gas by not building gas lines for new development.

lizknope 8mo ago

Ask This Old House had an episode literally yesterday where they installed a \ solar-assisted split heat pump water heater. There is a component that goes on the outside of the house but not on the roof which simplifies installation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqyAWkXXt3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqyAWkXXt3A https://www.neshw.com/residential/solar-heat-pump-water-heater/ https://www.neshw.com/residential/solar-heat-pump-water-heat...

newhotelowner 8mo ago

They marketing like it's an expensive tech, but it's pretty cheap. We have been buying heat pump PTAC for the hotels for last 20 years, and price difference is usually 5% between with and without heat pump. Seems like all companies are colluding with each other for marking up prices.

tempestn 8mo ago

We somewhat accidentally ended up with a good combo: we have a ventless heat pump dryer, and a heat pump water heater, also in the laundry room. So when doing laundry, the water heater cools the room while the dryer heats it, so they roughly cancel out. As an aside, HP dryers are really elegant tech, and it's a shame they're not more common. They use the heat pump not just to heat the air in the dryer, but also to condense the moisture back out of it, so just the water can be drained away instead of needing to exhaust the air outside. So you need much less energy overall, and you don't need a dryer vent. The only downside is they're a bit slower, but ours has a resistive backup option for when you need clothes dry asap, so really it's just price.

zhivota 8mo ago
Heat pump dryers work at a much lower heat as well since much of the heating of a traditional dryer is lost out of the vent. The heat pump condenses the water out of the hot air so you don't lose the heat. I've stopped needing to sort my clothes out as a result, I used to hate putting synthetics in a regular dryer because they get worn out so fast that way.
jonstewart 8mo ago
I bought a Samsung HP dryer a few years ago and it'd be great except for a terrible design flaw where lint gets trapped in its heat sink fins, turning into a soggy mess.
- tempestn 8mo ago
  We have a Whirlpool that I love, but they discontinued it a couple years ago with no replacement, and I can't imagine why. I guess most people just shop on price, so it didn't sell. Like I said, a shame.