I am trying to follow along, but people do things in other areas of the country that isnt normal in my area of the country. I have only seen one heatpump water heater, ever. So they are not very common around here. We also dont have any natural gas lines anywhere around me, but some folks do use propane. While gas heaters might not be the norm here, there are quite a few around. Electric water heaters I would say are pretty much king around here. I realize the heatpump water heaters are supposed to be more energy efficient, but if they are pulling heat out of my house in the wintertime, just to heat my hot water. I got to worry just how much electricity they actually save. I know from experience how much electric a hot water heater can add t a power bill. When I installed a homemade heat exchanger and storage tank to my wood stove, my electric bill dropped $50 a month. I had 4 adults and a baby living here at the time, lots of washing cloths, doing dishes and taking baths. My power company shows on my bill how much power I used this month, last month and last year for the same time period and after about 4 months it was pretty easy to see my wood fired water heater saved me a lot of money. This is great in the winter time when I keep a fire, but with warmer weather, there goes my free hot water. It seems that the heatpump water heaters take the heat out of a room to heat the water and gives off cool air. I would think there should be some way to take advantage of that in the summer time, heat my water and cool the house at the same time. You would never convince me to install a heatpump water heater to heat my hot water only and my wood stove probably does a much better job of heating the water than the heatpump heater ever could. Using the heatpump water heater to heat my water and cool my house in the summer time is something I might consider.