Calling around, asking local plumbers if they would install a heat-pump water heater for me, didn’t get me very far. One of them eventually suggested I order one from the local big box store. That eventually got me in touch with a plumbing company that told me I first had to get an electrical whip installed. I didn’t know what that was, but they assured me any local electrician would know what I was talking about. It turns out it’s jus an electrical line running from your main panel to the location where your water heater is, or will be.

I finally have the new hybrid heat-pump water heater installed! It’s a bit taller than the gas model it replaced - the compressor sits above the tank. When the compressor is running (heating the water) cold air comes out of the round vent area towards the top, about the temp you would get from an air conditioner.

You can get a sense of how the compressor sounds in this short video. It’s kind of like a slightly quieter version of a typical window air conditioner. https://youtube.com/shorts/TDrSZQEuBoc?feature=share

You can use an app to track how much energy it’s using. Here is a bad graph it provides for the previous week. 16Kwh for the week total, averaging between 2 and 3 KWh per day. I’m paying about $0.14 per KWh, so, $2.24 for the electricity to heat all my hot water for a week, about $10 per month.

One more thing I wanted to mention - the new water heater has an 80-gallon tank, same size as the one it replaced.