Bluegrass state goes green with water heater giveaway

Being green is getting easier, at least in the Bluegrass state: Kentucky officials are using a $70 million grant of federal stimulus money to give residents who qualify a free General Electric GeoSpring hybrid heat-pump electric water heater. Built in GE's Louisville plant, the Energy Star-qualified GeoSpring water heater is also known as the GE GEH50DNSRSA and delivered a more than 50-percent annual savings over a similarly sized electric-only heater in Consumer Reports' latest tests.
 
"The program is a part of a long-running Department of Energy weatherization program where we can do up to $6,500 of free weatherization work in a home," Rob Jones, the executive director of Community Action Kentucky, told Consumer Reports. Income limits to receive the GE heat-pump electric water heater and other benefits are $21,660 for a single-person household and $44,100 for a family of four; that limit goes up for homes with more inhabitants.
 
Heat-pump water heaters save energy over electric-only versions by extracting heat from the air around them. Kentucky has already bought 115 GeoSprings from GE at a discounted price of $1,100 each. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, GE may extend the discount to state programs in New York and Texas. The GeoSpring and other water heaters of this ilk also qualify for a 30 percent federal tax credit and other incentives.

Jones estimates the program could install up to 500 GeoSpring hybrid heat-pump electric water heaters by year's end, but that number could go higher as his group ramps up production. "We're trying to maximize our productivity so we can do as many homes as our production allows," he says.
 
A drawback Jones noted: The GeoSpring water heater must be installed in a large enough space so there's sufficient air for the heat pump to work—a requirement we noted in our testing. "If the manufacturer could come up with a way to put it in a tighter space, we could probably do even more installations in smaller and mobile homes," he says.

Watch for our full report on the pros and cons of heat pump and solar water heaters in the October 2010 issue of Consumer Reports, which will be online and on newsstands in early September.  In the meantime, see our Energy Saving & Green Living guide for some simple, low-cost ways to help slash your utility bills right now.

—Gian Trotta

Photo courtesy of General Electric