Looks like my current gas water is about to die soon, so I’m looking at a smart replacement that also makes use of the fact that I have solar panels installed.
From what I’ve seen the Rheem ProTerra line is a solid choice, but I just wanted to check if there’s anybody here who has one of these installed and who’d be happy to share their experience.
I see that there’s 2 options to integrate these HPWHs into Home Assistant and from what I understand they can even be run in parallel, so there’s no need to chose upfront:
Is one of them more useful than the other - apart from the cloud vs. DIY & local part (which I’m totally fine with).
Does anyone have a list of Dos & Don’ts that would get me off to a better start?
I can probably have a 240V socket installed easily, but I wonder, if somebody has some positive experience with the 110V version as well.
Yeah I know: Open mouth. Insert foot. Post internationally. US means UnServiceable or Up the Sh*t in my workshop, (same as your existing hot water service) - that’s what I think. Maybe I was wrong and am suitably chastised. If you’re throwing shade, you’ve won your battle before it started, and I see your original post may have been edited after I posted.
Too many TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) floating around.
Too bad I’ve got up in the western hemisphere a little cranky, as I’ve had several Rheems, both gas and electric. I’ve seen units in multiple countries, some installed well, others ‘rather agriculturally’ is how it was put to me by the long-suffering owner. Solid units overall, especially if you change the sacrificial anode/s at correct intervals to suit your local water supply, and make allowance for electrolysis when plumbing and connecting to your energy source. Rheem has global reach, and do make different units for different locations to suit local requirements. Installation can make the big difference to longevity. Maybe ask your local installer, who probably also has a wealth of local knowledge across a number of suppliers.
Quick Update:
I had my water heater installed; went for a Ruud instead of a Rheem - same manufacturer, same system (EcoNet), but it’s the ‘installer version’ of the Rheem product.
In the end, my preference for proper warranty through one company sealed the deal, i.e. I can go to the installer in case there are issues rather than having to deal with e.g. Home Depot for the hardware and the installer for - ahm - installation issues.
Plus, I was told (but haven’t been able to verify), that the hardware chain would only provide a ‘prorated warranty of 10 years’. It’ seems as bad as it sounds: if the water heater fails 5years in, you only get 50% reimbursed, or however the situation is being dealt with.
And now on how I’m managing it:
I’m currently running both integrations mentioned above in parallel, but I might ditch the native EcoNet one and keep the ESPHome-EcoNet one.
While the manufacturer’s solution provides some info, the ESPHome one shows much more of what I want to see, e.g.
I also get real-time power figures (in W) from the ESPH version while the native integration only provides daily energy consumption (in kWh) - and the native consumption figures seem questionable at best.
Once I had all the parts ready, setting up the ESPHome solution took me only about half an hour to 45min, so I was very pleased with that as well.
I’ll ‘close’ the topic for now, but if anybody finds it useful or has any questions, please just go ahead and ask!
I don’t pay attention to that one to be honest I also have it on a span panel and watch that circuit. But I’ll give it a watch and see if they drift for you…
Yeah mine is installed in a garage space with a louvered vent. When it rains one drop hits that pan and beeeeeeeep! I had to build my info pack for Friday to check if it was raining before yelling at me about it…
A couple of questions, if you are still following this (and since the OP says “go ahead and ask”).
How low can you set the temperature? Some reviews of their phone app said 110 F was the minimum.
Is the ability to control and monitor the water heater generally reliable? It sounds like the phone app is pretty bad, but perhaps the ESPHome solution avoids the problems, which may be on their server side.
Just for background, I plan to add the Rheem (or Ruud) as a pre-heater to an existing heat pump water heater.
The primary goal is to be able to provide plenty of hot water when we have guests a few times per year by running both water heaters normally. This could be done manually, but of course I will use HA if convenient.
The second goal is where HA comes in. My plan is to set the temperature higher when we have excess solar power and lower otherwise. Then our existing water heater will receive pre-heated water and save us a little power.
Other suggestions and comments are welcome, of course.
110F was the minimum acceptable on the water heater itself. The next step would be to turn it off or turn it into vacation mode… I have not tried either though… it’s my only tank.
Yes reliable - as long as your ESP device getting good wifi at the location. I did not even bother to setup any Rheem account - the app is not only unreliable, but also far (far, far,) behind in terms of feature set. The only “feature” that ESPHome would not offer is for your power company to (tell EcoNet to) turn off your water heater temporary due to high grid demand in your area.
Using excessive solar power is a good idea. This means you likely would turn the temperature set point way down most of the day, and only set it high in the afternoon… when you have enough solar above a certain criteria. This turns your secondary water heater essentially as a battery, in a form of hot water.
You likely will want to set your criteria carefully - because when you have any compressor, it would NOT like to be triggered on then off then on all the time - (similar principle of running your HVAC.)
So some grace period or buffer time (or other clever automation design) might be needed, so your automation wouldn’t turn the heat pump water heater off or only 48 seconds, when there is a cloud flying above your place.
= = = = = =
EDIT:
Also some extra information for @VeloSteve , since you plan to feed your water heater with solar:
When the heat pump (of my water heater) is running, it would consume ~ 400W
It would heat up the tank at the rate of ~ 10°F per hour
Hope the above would help your planning.
I see a minimum temperature of 110F as well; but I keep the set temp at 117F - a compromise between me and the boss.
I used to have it set to ‘Energy Saving’ mode, but the temperature dropped down to 95ish before the heat pump came on; I even created an automation to force the heat pump to come on when the temperature dropped below 105F to avoid discussion about the water being toocold..
Then I realized that setting the system to Heat Pump mode would do something very similar, i.e the water heater keeps itself in a much narrower temperature band than using ‘Energy Saving’ mode
I set up a Rheem/Ruud account but I’m not using the app - the ESP solution works really well. I have set it up to put the water heater on vacation mode when I trigger the whole-house vacation mode from Home Assistant.
I think the lowest temperature I have seen in this mode is 87F; if I remember correctly, it will trigger as soon as it gets to 85F.
The Ruud/Rheem app as well as the ESP solution offer a ‘High Demand’ as well as a ‘Electric/Gas’ mode; they would go well with forcing the pre-water heater to provide enough hot water for when you have guests.
