Hi Neo - Yes, I like it very much. I had it for about 4-5 months now, and it is saving me about $20/month off my electric bill. As someone has mentioned, there is a noise from the fans when it is operating that sounds like a handheld vacuum cleaner - it bothered me for about 2 weeks intially when the house is quiet at night... but I have gotten used to it and now it is just pure background noise. The water heater is in my unfinished basement, and as I mentioned above, I have no problem in terms of cooling the room and "stealing" heat form the house. I would like to address some people's concern about this stealing heat from house during winter: I have posted my reasoning and argument of why I think you will still come out ahead in another forum. ****** 1. Since it is only heating the water and not the whole house, using air natural and forced convection to earth seems to be good enough. Recently, I put a digital thermostat in my basement about 10' from the GE water heater. While running, the temperature readings dropped about 2-3F. After finished heating, the basement temperature reverts back to "normal" (about 60F nowadays). 2. I am fully aware and and am considering the whole house energy balance system, and it is my contention that you will still save money during the heating months. Let's use a simple theoretical example to illustrate my point: let say you use 100,000BTU of water heating a month and it costs $100 with a typical 90% efficient electric water heater. The home is using a 300% efficient electric heat pump to heat the house during the winter. That means is will only cost $30 to get the same 100,000 BTU of heat energy ($100 * 90%/300%). Now, you have to add the heat pump water heater efficiency to move the heat from the house to the water - the GE water heater is rated at 235% efficiency, so that will take about $38 and makes the total cost to be $30 + $38 = $68... a lot better than $100 using the standard electric resistance heaters. Granted, it is not better than the cooling months in which the heat pump is additive to the whole house energy equation. However, it is still saving you money during the heating months due to the fact that it take less energy to move the heat (outside->home->water) versus generating the heat outright. Another thing to thing about is when people think that people is solving the problem by just ducting the evaporator cold air outside. The problem is the air that you ducted outside will have to be replaced with air from somewhere (you cannot get too negative air pressure)... well, if you are in Midwest winter, the air outside is usually colder than the air that is coming out of the back of the GE water heater. Here is the DOE Energy Star analysis of water heaters. On page 9, there is a comparison table for various Electric heating technology. The HPWH wins in almost every category. http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/prod_development/new_specs... ******* Hope it helps... Here is a link that might be useful: fatwallet heat pump water heater

First off, 4 stories sounds like a big vertical head for residential mini-split equipment just from my casual notice of those requirements. I would check that out first. I am testing a whole-house mini-split installation right now (Mitsubishi, 7 in, 3 out). I will let you know in a year or so if I like it ;-) On paper they are more efficient due to inherent efficiency and the inherent zoned nature. We have been having pretty hot weather and with my wife out of town this week, I have been pretty much been cooling the bedroom and the kitchen with some intermittent cooling in the utility room where the exercise machine lives. Note that I am not much of a sit and watch TV type. You are really a leg-up over lots of others on this decision as you have experienced mini-splits. One thing to think about is that, IIRC, most of them don't have back-up heat so you will not have any heat while they are defrosting. (Maybe none of them have electric resistance back-up, but I think I ran across at least one brand that does.) You also have to pay close attention to cold weather performance for the mid-Atlantic region. I know that with Mitsubishi's current residential equipment, the 1:1 systems have better low temp performance than the multi-splits. They are more efficient too. Even if they do have back-up heat, you can kill the efficiency pretty fast if you need back-up very often. Keep in mind that there are lots of options to the wall-hung indoor units. They cost more, but there are units that can be dropped into ceilings and others that sit on the floor. There are also short, ducted units that would solve that big room problem by splitting the supply and return. (You could also install more than one indoor unit/room.) Condensate needs to be dealt with using pumps. I am not an HVAC or building pro, so take my observations with a grain of salt. After replacing a ducted system with mini-splits, and talking to my install guys a lot, here are some observations and conclusions. Installing a mini-split through outside walls, as is it usually promoted, is pretty quick and straightforward (read fast and cheap) compared to installing a new duct system in an existing house with no central AC. My install was done through interior walls running the lines/cables under the raised house and out to the side which was much more complicated. If I were doing this over and I had a good duct system within a house envelope, I would stick with it. The trouble is, what is a good duct system? More often than not, they are outside of the living space. In addition, they are considered good when they leak 5% of the air and they only get worse as they age. My system was in the attic with parts of the duct system in the attic and partly in a furred-down space over the hallway. The worst part was one duct that started at the AH in the attic, dropped down under the house in a chase and ran for about 30 feet before it reached the first floor register in an addition with a flat roof (thus no attic). It then reduced in size and ran another 25 feet under the house. That part might have been mini-splitted even if the rest of the house retained a ducted system. By your description, your duct system was not installed very well, but if the design is sound, it could be revamped less expensively than installing minis. In general, I think that ducted systems are trickier to design and install than mini-splits so there is more tolerance for less than careful and knowledgeable installers with mini-splits. Due to their ability to handle variable loads, choosing the right size is not as critical either. (I had 4 tons cooling plus a gas furnace before, now I have about 106% of the cooling and 60% of the heating. The heating was way oversized.) My system will handle cooling fine with the house the way it is, but I should not have trouble after I make improvements to limit infiltration and add insulation. My installer is knowledgeable, smart, very workmanlike, and experienced (he has taught the trade for 30 years). He would have installed new ducts and a two-speed system for a slightly lower price than the chosen mini-split equipment. I doubt that he would do it for the same price if doing it on a similar home going through interior walls. He did not have much mini-split experience and brought in a collaborator that does, on this project because he was looking forward to a learning experience. I don't think that he lost his shirt, but I don't think he made as much as he usually does.

Upstairs air handler will be in a mechanical room near the center of the house. Preferred location of outside units will be about be about 16ft from downstairs air handler and about 36ft from upstairs not counting the difference in height. Dont know how the dealer would want to do it as I haven't started getting bids yet. How do they normally run the refrigerant to the air handler? Through the slab or through the wall? Thanks

Snidely, this time I am offended. I did mistype (iPad adds extra m's when not careful). I meant to write it was one I was considering. It is a Bryant heat pump and I WAS going to call a Bryant dealer to compare hvac prices out of the program. They had marginal bbb ratings so I knocked on a house in the neighborhood to ask how it went. It's not the fictitious friend deal. If his install went great I might have called. Now I will just choose between the 2 quotes that I trust the contractor, I just don't want to pay their prices! Might be a case of you get what you pay for. This guy did say the company he chose was less $.