After weeks of waiting, thanks to lock downs in Victoria, I finally have a 315L Sanden Heat Pump installed, replacing my who-knows-how old gas instantaneous water heater. The job has been done professionally by SolarFlow, kudos to the team!

I can label myself an environmentalist who keeps trying to minimize my own carbon footprint but this heat pump is also a logical and economical decision.

First of all, a heat pump works like a reverse air conditioner: it extracts heat from the outside and heats up inside. In other words, unlike gas or old school electric water heater, heat pump doesn’t use energy to generate heat but only transfer it. During my little research on heat pump products, I noticed that amongst all heat pumps Sanden stands out as the most efficient one: with 1 unit of energy consumed it can transfer up to 6 units of energy, a 600% coefficient of performance(COP)! This means comparing to my gas water heater which probably has <60% of efficiency the heat pump is a tenfold more efficient. And high efficiency means less running cost.

With solar panels the perk of being an electric appliance is that when the sun is shining, the heat pump runs(almost) for free. Just to be clear, I still need to pay for water regardless weather. With a rough calculation, I paid about 500 dollars a year for hot water with the old gas heater, so this heat pump can possibly pay for itself in 10 years. ( I found it interesting when it is a V8 diesel SUV no one asks if it will pay for itself later but people do ask this question if it’s renewable related products )

Fingers crossed though, the tank is warranted for 15 years but the heat pump itself only has 6 years of warranty.

The temperature of the hot water out of the tank feels like 60°C, which means it needs to mix with some cold water to achieve a comfortable temperature, so the 315L tank practically can supply me much more than 315L of hot water depending on the desired temperature.

Last but not least it’s also quieter when running. I could definitely tell if the gas heater was running 5 meters away from it, but won’t be so sure about the heat pump.

Overall I’m quite pleased with this upgrade 🙂