My Sanden Heat Pump Experience

In September 2016 we replaced a not-so-old instantaneous gas HWS that we hated (noisy, bursts of cold water, minimum flow to stay hot) with a Sanden heat pump unit after discussion with Ken Ingwersen about its attributes.  I investigated the cheapies (way cheaper) on the web and even got quotes, but when I read reviews and web blogs decided to stay well away from them – noisy, break down, poor reliability and one thing you do need to be reliable is the HWS.

The ordering and installation with Ken went flawlessly, and because we had just switched to Powershop I was able to closely monitor the power consumption after installation.  Two adults, cold water to dishwasher and washing machine mean that hot water consumption is not high, and over the first month the unit has averaged 2 kWh/day and using off-peak power during the night to heat up means about $0.30/day, $2.10/week or only about $100/year for hot water.

If we have been away for a few days, the unit uses 1.3 kWh/day just to keep the tank hot, or about $0.20/day so if we were away for a few weeks we might turn it off.
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It will still take a few years to recoup the cost of the Sanden unit, but it is virtually silent, very well built and hopefully will still be running when electricity costs have doubled or tripled and this will be a really cost effective way to produce hot water.

Update - June 2019
After 3 years of continuous operation wanted to let you know that the Sanden unit you installed continues to operate almost silently and faultlessly, and for approximately $0.30/day depending on our use, provides all the hot water we need for our 2 person household even when outside air temperatures are down to less than 5C when it is running on off-peak

Russell - Paynesville, Vic

Actual Sanden heat pump installation by us

info correct at time of publishing