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Heat pump sales rise across Europe

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Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#101

Post by ProllyInfamous »

ethansinjin wrote: post #97
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #43

For anybody in TVA's electricity networks (mostly: Tennessee): they offer an annual promotion to single-family homeowners only to purchase an $1800 AO heatpump waterheater for only $250 . Maths: 85% discount on fancy new waterheater, which also dehumidifies and cools your house (passive result of heatpump). TVA usually offers this promotion between Thanksgiving and NYE. You can order online from HomeDepot, or walk in…

Important caveat: > You must swap out an old electric unit; switching from gas to electric doesn't qualify.[0] That’s a bummer; totally would have done this otherwise [0] https://www.hotwater.com/water-heater-rebates/tva-heat-pump-...

Interestingly, TVA/EPB/Lowes [7] never asked for our swaps (I threw all four oldtanks away).

[7] not Home Depot; AOSmith -eligible, not Rheem (can no longer edit abovepost)

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Didn't know about the gas disqualifier... or the great URL/reference (thanks)!

For future TVA homeowner installers: the website seems to indicate that you MUST use an approved contractor for the rebate — at least December 2025, in EPB/Chatt, this was not required: just had to go to Hixson Lowes and have them look up address and then paid (w/ delivery, not in-stock).

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Less than a decade ago, I helped install a 38kW [•] tankless/instaHot heater (¡¡¡ that's three 240v40a two-pole circuitbreakers !!!) into a beautiful new home. Homeowner is actively doing his part not maintaining the unit in eventual hopes of justify purchasing a new heatpump waterheater.

Godspeed.

[•] I think technically it's 28kW -rated (there's a consumer-installed limit, w/o boilermaker license), but the circuits support more w/o 80% derating applied

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#102

Post by fsckboy »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #46
GenerWork wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a heat pump hot water heater, and it's been awesome. It's ROI has definitely improved with all the energy price spikes. It's located in my garage (I live in Florida) so there's no shortage of hot air for it to use.

Same — I maintain four (one RHEEM and three AO's). The AO is a much cleaner/simpler/nicer install. The Rheem stupidly requires duct adapters (for small-space, who cares ?!

>at $250

after subsidy

>who cares?!

fellow taxpayers, fellow ratepayers, people who care about the planet, etc. etc.

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#103

Post by ProllyInfamous »

fsckboy wrote: post #102
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same — I maintain four (one RHEEM and three AO's). The AO is a much cleaner/simpler/nicer install. The Rheem stupidly requires duct adapters (for small-space, who cares ?!

> at $250 after subsidy > who cares?! fellow taxpayers, fellow ratepayers, people who care about the planet, etc. etc.

>fellow ratepayers

This reduces electric infrastructure demand, which is why it's subsidized. Presumably, this saves money (duh) for the company (duh) and possibly the customers (presumable duh). Presumably people who care about the planet understand this.

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Running a single heatpump waterheater is the equivalent of not driving your car, annually, according to TVA (in carbon footprint).

I'm running four [two households, ten people]. What's your question?

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edit/tone (educatable moments): https://www.hotwater.com/water-heater-rebates/tva-heat-pump-...>

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#104

Post by rstupek »

tass wrote: post #99
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corrosion will destroy the tank's fittings/liner. Quickly. So quickly, in fact, that it is mentioned multiple times in the installation manual to not do lots of things (no salt-fed softeners in bold/red/all-the-things).

Possibly obvious point, water softeners add salt to the water.

Not all water softeners add salt to the water. nuvoh2o sells a water softener that does not use salt.

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#105

Post by wattso »

crote wrote: post #62
wattso wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To jakozaur’s point, there’s plenty of reasons drilling can get cheaper and there’s at least one other company working on it [1]—would love to hear about others! I’m a minimally informed amateur but my intuition is that the way it’s typically done (multiple inch borehole, U-tube geometry) is fairly suboptimal since the diameter is a lot wider than you need it to be just for hydrodynamic resistance and you get losses…

The fact that you need to roll out a drilling rig plus crew at all is going to be a large part of that cost. For it to become interesting for the average homeowner the price is probably going to have to drop by something like 75% - but that basically kills any margins for clever new innovations...

What I was trying to get at with the ground rod example is it’s entirely possible that you wouldn’t have to roll out a drilling rig and crew. To zoom about a bit, the main risk for heat pumps is really ugly winter peaks but besides that, ASHPs are perfect 90+% of the time. So the main role I see for GSHPs is backing up ASHPs to shave that peak, and once you scale back their role like that it seems like there’s a lot of ways to cut installation costs significantly.

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#106

Post by pbreit »

“ A total of around 575,000 residential heat pump units were sold across 11 European countries from January to March 2026, up from 494,000 in the same period in 2025”

Not a big increase on a relatively small base. What is the takeaway here?

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#108

Post by bombcar »

rokkamokka wrote: post #94
ericd wrote: post #89

As a PSA, mini splits are pretty easy to self-install, and it can save you a bundle, even when buying all the equipment new. Lots of youtube videos on how to do it, though I'd add that most of them show using a manifold with analog gauges to do a vacuum test. You should really get a digital micron gauge and pull a deep vacuum.

Also, make sure that's actually legal in your jurisdiction. It is not legal here (primarily due to handling of coolant)

Even where it's not legal you can often do much of the work and hire a licensed contractor for the "final step". It can be worth asking around.

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#109

Post by ProllyInfamous »

GenerWork wrote: post #44
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #43

For anybody in TVA's electricity networks (mostly: Tennessee): they offer an annual promotion to single-family homeowners only to purchase an $1800 AO heatpump waterheater for only $250 . Maths: 85% discount on fancy new waterheater, which also dehumidifies and cools your house (passive result of heatpump). TVA usually offers this promotion between Thanksgiving and NYE. You can order online from HomeDepot, or walk in…

I have a heat pump hot water heater, and it's been awesome. It's ROI has definitely improved with all the energy price spikes. It's located in my garage (I live in Florida) so there's no shortage of hot air for it to use.

>>Florida>> "no shortage of hot air"

hot HUMID air – which heatpumps love!

Draw your inlet from [at least one] humid bathroom source, if you can. Always use insulated ducting to lessen local condensation.

----

I always smile knowing that using hot water doesn't cost any more than cold, at least when the AC would otherwise be cooling (offset).

Re: Heat pump sales rise across Europe

#110

Post by Terr_ »

crote wrote: post #62
wattso wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To jakozaur’s point, there’s plenty of reasons drilling can get cheaper and there’s at least one other company working on it [1]—would love to hear about others! I’m a minimally informed amateur but my intuition is that the way it’s typically done (multiple inch borehole, U-tube geometry) is fairly suboptimal since the diameter is a lot wider than you need it to be just for hydrodynamic resistance and you get losses…

The fact that you need to roll out a drilling rig plus crew at all is going to be a large part of that cost. For it to become interesting for the average homeowner the price is probably going to have to drop by something like 75% - but that basically kills any margins for clever new innovations...

In some potential future, there is an engineered a plant/fungus in a pot that you place onto the worksite. Months later, with regular sugar-water and hormones, it gives you a root-pipe for pennies a day.

Of course at that point we might not need the cheap pipe in the first place.

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