STIEBEL ELTRON Accelera 300 80G Electric Water Heater Review

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(More customer reviews)We did a lot of research when determining what type of hot water heater we wanted. Our main goal was to be able to disconnect the tankless coil on our oil boiler. Why disconnect the tankless? First of all, it belched fumes into our back yard all year long. Nothing would make me madder than trying to enjoy the back yard on a warm summer's day and having to smell fumes because the darned boiler came on to heat up residential hot water. The other thing I don't like about tankless boilers is that they are very inefficient. That's reason number 2 for switching hot water systems - to save money. Third of all, using less fossil fuel is good for the environment and that's important to us. Some friends were skeptical when we said we were getting an electric hot water heater, but I don't think they understand how this thing works. It's not your father's electric hot water heater. You might wonder how a device that uses, for example, a joule of energy could possibly produce 2.5 joules of heat. But it is possible if the device is merely moving heat from point A to point B. That's what the Stiebel Eltron does, and does very well. It does have a backup heating element for situations in which the compressor is not able to provide enough heat by itself, but most of the time, the heating element is not used.
So how does it work? Great! The water is piping hot and, owing to the large 80 gallon capacity, there is always plenty of hot water even for our 5-person family. It wasn't cheap, but it is a qualified purchase for the $1500 federal energy efficiency tax credit. So whatever you pay for it, you'll get $1500 back at tax time.
We positioned ours in the basement, close to the boiler, so that it can use some of the standby-loss heat that the boiler would otherwise waste. This does bring up one thing that you should be aware of - this unit will indeed make your basement colder. It's basically like having a window air conditioner running in your basement. Our basement isn't frigid, because the basement walls, being as they are underground, really buffer temperatures anyway. But it's definitely a little chillier down there than it was before we installed the Stiebel.
As for the bottom line... well first of all, don't underestimate how much it will cost to install this unit. We had a certified installer perform the work for us and the bill came to around $6500. After the tax credit, it's more like $5000. We were able to get a zero percent energy efficiency loan sponsored by the state of MA (I've been told other states have similar programs), so we're paying about $50 per month to own it. So are we saving $50 per month in fuel oil? Probably... it's a little hard to say just yet, as we've only had it for a few months. We won't really know for sure until we've had it for a year or more and can compare our year to year oil usage. One thing I will say though, is that the hit to our electric bill has been negligible. We really haven't noticed any increase in our electric bill at all. Maybe a couple bucks. We calculated that the unit will pay for itself in about 6 years... time will tell if those calculations are accurate.
I think it will really start to pay for itself next spring. I plan on turning the oil boiler off as soon as it warms up in the spring and not turning it on again until it gets cold again in autumn. Zero oil usage all summer! (Side note, an oil guy once told me that you shouldn't turn the boiler off for extended periods of time because the gaskets might crack... others I've spoken to say that's poppycock. It sounds pretty doubtful to me, and frankly, I don't really trust oil salesmen, so I plan on turning it off next summer and we'll see what happens).
So in summary... no regrets so far. Works great, plenty of hot water, barely a blip on the electric bill. Gotta love it.

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Stiebel Eltron Accelera 300 Electric Heat Pump Water Heater80 gallon storage capacity2.5 Energy factor according to Energy StarReduces hot water costs by up to 80%Cools and dehumidifies the air around itLow stand-by losses due to good insulation3/4" NPT water connectionSinlge phase 220vSacrificial anode rod10 year warrantyTechnical data

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