Hey All,

Live in CT (Climate Zone 5A). Currently have an electric storage water heater that’s located in the garage. It’s working fine and has been for about 15 years now. It’s wrapped pretty well with a tank wrap, pipes are pretty well insulated. It’s an attached garage, with conditioned space on either side, and I’m assuming the walls are insulated to the exterior.

I was considering installing a gas tankless unit in the garage, but the cost to run the gas line is astronomical. Therefore, I’m now considering a heat pump water heater. I understand the limitations in cold climates with heat pump water heaters, but what I’m considering doing is running it in heat pump mode between April-October, and then switching it into resistance mode (which can’t be much worse than I’m doing now) during the winter months.

2 Questions with respect to this approach:
1. Does anyone know of a heat pump water heater manufacturer that makes a water heater that can be switched into electric resistance mode for extended durations of time without having the system manually override back to heat pump setting?
2. Does this sound like a reasonable approach, and if so what else should I be considering here?

Thanks All!