As part of their house renovations 1998, Mark and Jane installed a very efficient instantaneous gas water heater – at the time, the most greenhouse friendly option available.
This worked extremely well for many years but, as Jane explains, became increasingly unsatisfactory. “It was always a pain as we had to shuffle our cars when Elgas arrived to deliver our gas bottles. They didn’t give us any notice and if no-one was home they’d leave angry notes! Coupled with that it was getting more and more expensive.”
The final straw came in 2018 when ELGAS said that it would no longer deliver gas to the house. At this stage they realised that their gas water heater was 20 years old and far beyond its expected lifetime, so it was an ideal time to change to electric water heating.
“By planning this before the old one failed it gave us time to research all the options – rather than have to make the choice on the fly,” says Jane.
“Compared to today, the choice of heat pump water heaters was limited and most were expensive, but we still figured that spread over the lifetime the savings in energy costs would be worth it” explains Mark. “On gas we were paying over $800 per year for heating water, with every chance that gas prices would keep increasing“.
In the end Mark and Jane went for a Sanden split system heat pump coupled with a 315 litre storage tank, all installed where their previous gas boiler had been so they didn’t have to change the pipework to the house.
Despite being early adopters, their experience has been entirely positive. “Frankly I’m amazed at how reliable it has been. Its now 7 years old and I haven’t touched it since it was put in – we haven’t even had it serviced.”
“We were a little concerned about the noise disturbing our neighbours, but its so quiet I sometimes worry that its not working!” Mark added.
They run it off their solar generated electricity during the day, and it needs only 1-2 hours per day to provide sufficient hot water for the next 24 hrs.
Mark highlights the need to find the right installers for heat pumps “They are bit trickier than normal water heaters and it really pays to use people with lots of experience with heat pumps.”
“We aren’t completely off gas, as we still have a gas cooktop” added Jane. “The plan is to get an induction stove, but this is waiting until our kitchen needs a makeover.”
Installed by: Superior Solar
Sanden 315L Heat Pump System GAUS-315EQTAQ
September 2018
$5,480.00
You can now access government rebates to reduce the cost of installing a heat pump water heater.