I would put the cold air output into your ac return side .. this way when the AC is running its sucking and assisting versus then blowing at each other
I live in the midwest. I already have a heat pump HVAC system and am picking up my heat pump Richmond Hot water heater this week from Menards. I intend to duct the hot water heater into the return ducting of the HVAC during the summer and then duct it outside during the winter. I'm in an all-electric house with 42 solar panels (grid-tied). Hoping this new 65-gallon hot water tank will help out a bit both in lower electrical usage and a cooler home in the summer. Great video.
I just installed my Richmond heat pump and it seems like a nice unit. It currently has no ducting, and it never shuts off because the cool air outlet is dumping right back into the inlet in a loop--its in a pretty tight space. Luckily it has the option of using its electric heating element only leaving the heat pump off. I like your idea of dumping outside during the winter and into the AC at summer. How do you plan to switch between the two? Will you have to do it manually?
@@zktec1 I purchased the 65-gallon Richmond unit at Menards for $2199 and just recently got a $249 check back (11%) from Menards. I have the Hot Water Heater (took 4 weeks to obtain), but have not installed it yet. My old unit is a 4-year-old Rheem 50-gallon electric. Here is my intention: Hybrid Unit is placed next to the return side of the HVAC unit. For this two-foot run, I’ll place 8-inch ducting with a “T” in the middle so that I can adjust the flow. I don’t want too much flow sucking air through the water heater. I’ll measure the airflow before with a flow meter and then get something close. That takes care of the summer months. In the winter I’ll direct the cold air (using the old gas hot water tank exhaust ducting) that the house originally came with. My HVAC fan runs 24/7 because I am on solar and my HVAC is also a heat pump. As for the hot water intake; my refrigerator is almost directly above and produces warm air year-round. Yep, I plan to run a floor duct right behind the fridge to pull the warm air into the hot water heater. That will give me a consistent warm air supply year-round. We live in an all-electric house. My electric bill currently ranges from a high in Dec/Jan/Feb of around $150 and in Sept/Oct/April/May to around $0 or less. The rest of the months are around $50 per month. We have 42 solar panels and do nothing to conserve electricity (why should we). Our current Rheem 4-year-old Hot Water Electric Heater I plan to plumb and wire in to be used for an emergency only. If you have ever woken up without hot water it’s nice to know we have a backup plan. Sure it might take an hour or two to get hot water, but we know it is coming. Really looking forward to installing this. Running a new 10/3 conduit to the fuse box tomorrow and will start putting together the pieces afterward as the wife does not want to be without hot water even one day. I already ordered the Richmond intake and exhaust ducting to make life easier. Our Menards does not normally stock these parts.
@@robertsokol6918 Dude, hats off to you for the refrigerator ducting idea! As soon as I read that I started looking, and my refrigerator is above and very close as well. It'll be a tight squeeze but I think I can manage to bring 8" ducting there. My biggest concern is the air filtration. From this guy's video (ruclips.net/video/mwrwJoS-7K8/видео.html) I think the filtration of the unit is lacking. I may build a shroud that fits over the top vent holes plus fits over the slit where the original filter panel goes in, for a really good seal. Then duct that into a separate DIY inline filter box where I can slide in a common HVAC filter....14x14x1 ? I don't know. I could alternatively order the Rheem shroud like you did and just tape over the original filter slit. I realize now that this heater is ideal for the summer time. As for winter though, there just isn't any heat source to pull from other than the heat from your own HVAC (and refrigerator). Pumping the cold air outside will cause negative house pressure which brings cold air back in, or you let the water heater dump its cold air directly in the house. But your refrigerator heat idea seems very logical. About your concern about too much air sucking through the water heater...are you concerned about the water heater? or are you concerned about the HVAC return air being redirected away from its original inlet ducts and pulling it through the water heater? The latter I would think. As usual, I tend to turn basic projects into massive ones. I decided to insulate all my hot water lines, and eventually add hot water return lines for a recirculation system later on.
@@zktec1 Negative Air Pressure - I don’t buy it. It’s too small a concern because: What about a house with a gas hot water tank, a gas furnace, a fireplace, a gas stove with an exhaust duct, not to mention all the bathroom exhaust fans. Wouldn’t each one of these cause a negative air pressure? But somehow, these houses all stay nice and warm in the winter. This little heat pump on the hot water tank is just too small (unless you live in a small shack) to make a difference and cause any serious negative air pressure. That’s my 2 cents. Another thought I had about ducting to the refrigerator is: Since heat rises, it might be best to add the duct toward the top of the fridge. I've seen some gutter drains that are 3 feet x 5 inches that might work great to mount over the back of the fridge. Yes the filtration of this unit does appear to be lacking and you can easily add a secondary filter anywhere along the intake side ducting. I love doing projects like this.
Awesome Vid! I know it’s been some time since install, had U checked if your free A/C air is feeding some backwards into the AHU’s in basement end vs upstairs house? Curious?
Nice job. Perhaps an alternative might be to pipe the exhaust into the return of the AHU so that the AHU can give the air a boost. Just like an ERV would be piped into existing ductwork
Totally agree with putting the exhaust into the cold air return of the AHU. Discharging it outside just means that you have to bring in colder air to replace the discharged air. Discharging it directly in the basement cools the basement too much in the winter. This way you evenly distribute the cool air throughout the house and the home furnace system keeps us comfortable.
I'm actually thinking about getting one if these water heaters and having the intake duct to my attic drawing in the hot air and having the cooler exhaust into the living area.
after watching both of these videos, i can't help but wonder if there's a way to take it 1 step further, setting up the ductwork/baffles such that u pull hot/humid air from the outside in the summer while dumping the output into the home's ducting then switching the baffles so u get opposite in the winter.
For efficiency, you're spot on. I'd recommend avoiding dumping into your existing ducting --- you don't know what the temp & humidity of that air is, and don't want to have the water heater's fan to overcome your main HVAC fan.
did you boost the fans at all to increase airflow? might want to consider this when adding ducting to the system. it probably wasnt engineered for this type of operation. does this reduce the heat pumps efficiency by keeping the evaporator cooler?
Interesting project. However, the problem is winter; you pull warmer air out of the house and pump it outside. Short of a heat exchanger, I don't see an answer to that problem.
I'm looking to do the same thing but I'm concerned that the static pressure in the AC system will overcome the ability of the hybrid water heater fin. What do you think of routing it into the intake side of the HVAC system instead?
You are an amazing inspiration. Thanks so much! Why did you decide that the cool dry air coming into the basement during the winter was not beneficial in terms of lowering basement humidity?
Replaced gas heater and I can't tell you if there is a difference in energy use, never really paid much attention that as long as I have hot water. The actual performance between the two I can't say there's a difference, at least nothing stands out.
We have a 50 gallon rheem hybrid water heater and it saved us quite a bit, the old 40 gallon electric water heater was almost $500 a year to run ,this hybrid is only $120 so this was a no brainer, I highly recommend it. 😀
they produce a lot of heat... which is why the instructions give specs on minimum gaps for air flow. They also generate condensation, but a hundred years of development means they figured out to blow the hot air over the drain pan to evaporate away the condensed water.
Nice. Vid I watch your other install video, why did you install ductwork? I was reading that you don’t need it in a space like your basement just wondering
So I added the exhaust outlet because The thing expels cold dry air And my thought was why not filter that into my duct work for air conditioning during the summer for free
I am going to do the same thing…this video showed me how and inspired me! Thank you
I would put the cold air output into your ac return side .. this way when the AC is running its sucking and assisting versus then blowing at each other
I live in the midwest. I already have a heat pump HVAC system and am picking up my heat pump Richmond Hot water heater this week from Menards. I intend to duct the hot water heater into the return ducting of the HVAC during the summer and then duct it outside during the winter. I'm in an all-electric house with 42 solar panels (grid-tied). Hoping this new 65-gallon hot water tank will help out a bit both in lower electrical usage and a cooler home in the summer. Great video.
I just installed my Richmond heat pump and it seems like a nice unit. It currently has no ducting, and it never shuts off because the cool air outlet is dumping right back into the inlet in a loop--its in a pretty tight space. Luckily it has the option of using its electric heating element only leaving the heat pump off. I like your idea of dumping outside during the winter and into the AC at summer. How do you plan to switch between the two? Will you have to do it manually?
@@zktec1 I purchased the 65-gallon Richmond unit at Menards for $2199 and just recently got a $249 check back (11%) from Menards. I have the Hot Water Heater (took 4 weeks to obtain), but have not installed it yet. My old unit is a 4-year-old Rheem 50-gallon electric. Here is my intention:
Hybrid Unit is placed next to the return side of the HVAC unit. For this two-foot run, I’ll place 8-inch ducting with a “T” in the middle so that I can adjust the flow. I don’t want too much flow sucking air through the water heater. I’ll measure the airflow before with a flow meter and then get something close. That takes care of the summer months. In the winter I’ll direct the cold air (using the old gas hot water tank exhaust ducting) that the house originally came with.
My HVAC fan runs 24/7 because I am on solar and my HVAC is also a heat pump. As for the hot water intake; my refrigerator is almost directly above and produces warm air year-round. Yep, I plan to run a floor duct right behind the fridge to pull the warm air into the hot water heater. That will give me a consistent warm air supply year-round.
We live in an all-electric house. My electric bill currently ranges from a high in Dec/Jan/Feb of around $150 and in Sept/Oct/April/May to around $0 or less. The rest of the months are around $50 per month. We have 42 solar panels and do nothing to conserve electricity (why should we).
Our current Rheem 4-year-old Hot Water Electric Heater I plan to plumb and wire in to be used for an emergency only. If you have ever woken up without hot water it’s nice to know we have a backup plan. Sure it might take an hour or two to get hot water, but we know it is coming.
Really looking forward to installing this. Running a new 10/3 conduit to the fuse box tomorrow and will start putting together the pieces afterward as the wife does not want to be without hot water even one day. I already ordered the Richmond intake and exhaust ducting to make life easier. Our Menards does not normally stock these parts.
@@robertsokol6918 Dude, hats off to you for the refrigerator ducting idea! As soon as I read that I started looking, and my refrigerator is above and very close as well. It'll be a tight squeeze but I think I can manage to bring 8" ducting there. My biggest concern is the air filtration. From this guy's video (ruclips.net/video/mwrwJoS-7K8/видео.html) I think the filtration of the unit is lacking. I may build a shroud that fits over the top vent holes plus fits over the slit where the original filter panel goes in, for a really good seal. Then duct that into a separate DIY inline filter box where I can slide in a common HVAC filter....14x14x1 ? I don't know. I could alternatively order the Rheem shroud like you did and just tape over the original filter slit.
I realize now that this heater is ideal for the summer time. As for winter though, there just isn't any heat source to pull from other than the heat from your own HVAC (and refrigerator). Pumping the cold air outside will cause negative house pressure which brings cold air back in, or you let the water heater dump its cold air directly in the house. But your refrigerator heat idea seems very logical.
About your concern about too much air sucking through the water heater...are you concerned about the water heater? or are you concerned about the HVAC return air being redirected away from its original inlet ducts and pulling it through the water heater? The latter I would think.
As usual, I tend to turn basic projects into massive ones. I decided to insulate all my hot water lines, and eventually add hot water return lines for a recirculation system later on.
@@zktec1 Negative Air Pressure - I don’t buy it. It’s too small a concern because:
What about a house with a gas hot water tank, a gas furnace, a fireplace, a gas stove with an exhaust duct, not to mention all the bathroom exhaust fans. Wouldn’t each one of these cause a negative air pressure? But somehow, these houses all stay nice and warm in the winter. This little heat pump on the hot water tank is just too small (unless you live in a small shack) to make a difference and cause any serious negative air pressure. That’s my 2 cents. Another thought I had about ducting to the refrigerator is: Since heat rises, it might be best to add the duct toward the top of the fridge. I've seen some gutter drains that are 3 feet x 5 inches that might work great to mount over the back of the fridge. Yes the filtration of this unit does appear to be lacking and you can easily add a secondary filter anywhere along the intake side ducting. I love doing projects like this.
Awesome Vid! I know it’s been some time since install, had U checked if your free A/C air is feeding some backwards into the AHU’s in basement end vs upstairs house? Curious?
Nice job. Perhaps an alternative might be to pipe the exhaust into the return of the AHU so that the AHU can give the air a boost. Just like an ERV would be piped into existing ductwork
Totally agree with putting the exhaust into the cold air return of the AHU. Discharging it outside just means that you have to bring in colder air to replace the discharged air. Discharging it directly in the basement cools the basement too much in the winter. This way you evenly distribute the cool air throughout the house and the home furnace system keeps us comfortable.
Can save a ton of time and money as the inlet and outlet adapters for Richmond heaters are the same as Rheem and a 1/3 of the price.
You just saved me a ton of time/money. Thank you!
Great video great idea. Have you maybe thought about putting in an inline duct fan to help blow more cold air from heat pump water heater exhaust.
I'm actually thinking about getting one if these water heaters and having the intake duct to my attic drawing in the hot air and having the cooler exhaust into the living area.
after watching both of these videos, i can't help but wonder if there's a way to take it 1 step further, setting up the ductwork/baffles such that u pull hot/humid air from the outside in the summer while dumping the output into the home's ducting then switching the baffles so u get opposite in the winter.
For efficiency, you're spot on. I'd recommend avoiding dumping into your existing ducting --- you don't know what the temp & humidity of that air is, and don't want to have the water heater's fan to overcome your main HVAC fan.
I was thinking about just swapping the intake and outtake on the unit itself during each season don't really need winter and summer flaps that way idk
Good job on installation. My problem is having brick exterior
Ooh. That would be way more challenging
👍🏿 this is so me ....🤣....always tinkering
did you boost the fans at all to increase airflow? might want to consider this when adding ducting to the system. it probably wasnt engineered for this type of operation. does this reduce the heat pumps efficiency by keeping the evaporator cooler?
ive been wondering if one of these would act as a sort of drop in place air conditioner for like a hot laundry room..
Did making that large hole on the outside wall ( ledger plate ) compromise the load bearing of the outside studs ?
So technically one could duct the cold air to say a pantry, this technically would keep root veggies longer. 🤔 s cool pantry all year round.
or a wine cellar 😊
Interesting project. However, the problem is winter; you pull warmer air out of the house and pump it outside. Short of a heat exchanger, I don't see an answer to that problem.
I'm looking to do the same thing but I'm concerned that the static pressure in the AC system will overcome the ability of the hybrid water heater fin. What do you think of routing it into the intake side of the HVAC system instead?
Wow, great video. You’re a ginormous! I would love to do that in my house, but the wife would kill me if I make a hole that big on the wall! 😂
What size is the adapter that you put over the 9x 18 inlet duct? And where did you get the adapter?
nice job
Hello. Real nice video. I have my hybrid water heater on order and plan on ducting it. Quick question. Where did you get the 6" metal louver ?
Thanks
Home depot
No now I'm thinking Amazon can't remember...one of the two
Thanks. I will see if I can find.
Awesome video btw.
have you been able to tell much a/c saving or any power bill savings yet?
No i doubt anything significant. It's gotta be better than wasting the cold air in the basement
You are an amazing inspiration. Thanks so much! Why did you decide that the cool dry air coming into the basement during the winter was not beneficial in terms of lowering basement humidity?
Don't know about humidity but this basement gets to be around 55-60°F in the winter, just didn't want to add more cold air.
Where's the inlet duct pulling from?
I made a video for the inlet duck work. It's coming from the upstairs bathroom
Have you seen a drop in your energy use with your heat pump hot water tank? Did you replace a gas or electric tank?
Replaced gas heater and I can't tell you if there is a difference in energy use, never really paid much attention that as long as I have hot water. The actual performance between the two I can't say there's a difference, at least nothing stands out.
We have a 50 gallon rheem hybrid water heater and it saved us quite a bit, the old 40 gallon electric water heater was almost $500 a year to run ,this hybrid is only $120 so this was a no brainer, I highly recommend it. 😀
Hello my friend. I did something very similar but am having crazy condensations problems on the outlet duct work. Did this happen to you?
No. It gets cold but no water.
@@JLafix Crazy stuff. I think I went to long with my duct work. I’m going to add an inline booster fan. That should solve the issue.
I wonder why refrigerators don't need duct out. Refrigerators must be producing heat?
The heat they produce dries up the water in the condensate pan underneath.
they produce a lot of heat... which is why the instructions give specs on minimum gaps for air flow. They also generate condensation, but a hundred years of development means they figured out to blow the hot air over the drain pan to evaporate away the condensed water.
Nice. Vid I watch your other install video, why did you install ductwork? I was reading that you don’t need it in a space like your basement just wondering
So I added the exhaust outlet because The thing expels cold dry air And my thought was why not filter that into my duct work for air conditioning during the summer for free
You actually don't need any duck work inlet or outlet if you have a wide open space.
Thanks for the info, good idea tho
I called my power company and I could get a $600 reimbursement if it's duct properly.
What is the CFM requirement for the vent?
Check the manual, ducting requirements are in there and you can get a good enough idea of the CFM from that.
My RUUD 65 gal. hybrid water heater pushes 150-250 cfm out of the outlet. Just got off the phone with their tech support.