Heat pump water heater: climate hero? » Yale Climate Connections

Transcript:

When you turn on the faucet to take a shower, you just want the water to be warm. You don’t want to think about what kind of energy was used to heat it. But utilities do.

As electric heat pump water heaters gain popularity, some utilities in the West are testing technology that can adjust the time these devices use electricity to when there’s more clean energy on the grid.

Whited: “Heat pump water heaters are really easy to control.”

Wesley Whited is with DNV, a global consulting firm. He says this can be done while still maintaining residents’ comfort.

Whited: “Residents … have really predictable hot water use patterns. So think about your morning routine. We’re using a lot of hot water in the morning as we’re getting our families ready for school and ready for work. But we’re not having a lot of high hot water demand, say at 1 p.m., and that is actually the time when we have a lot of excess renewable energy on the grid.”

The approach can help consumers save money because they’re shifting their energy use to times when it’s more abundant and cheaper. And it can help the grid use more clean energy, which reduces carbon pollution.

So Whited says he’s excited about the technology.Whited: “From a climate perspective, a heat pump water heater is really going to be a hero of the future energy transition.”

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media

Only 28% of U.S. residents regularly hear about climate change in the media, but 77% want that news. We can change that, and our only limitation is the size of our budget. Unlike some outlets, we don’t have fossil-fuel backers. And we’re not funded directly by Yale University. Will you chip in to put more climate news in front of Americans in 2025?

The climate is changing, and our journalists are here to help you make sense of it. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and never miss a story.

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

We love it when others republish our articles. Most of our content – other than images – is available to republish for free under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Here’s what to do:

by YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections March 21, 2025