No, it’s not wasteful. The steel in large home appliances is valuable and easy to recycle. Plus, the climate benefits of upgrading to an electric water heater far outweigh any benefit of using your gas water heater until it wears out.
Upgrading now makes financial sense…
- Replacing a gas water heater in an emergency can make it extra challenging to electrify. Rush jobs are always pricier, and the rebates are likely to diminish in the future.
- Heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) provide long-term cost savings and have a longer life span than their gas counterparts.
…and is better for the environment.
- According to ConsumerAffairs, your gas water heater is one of the most inefficient appliances in your home. And the older your water heater, the less energy-efficient it is.
- If you want to do right for the planet, switch your gas-burning appliances to electric as soon as possible, and don’t wait for those appliances to wear out.
- Yes, this means that the embodied carbon in the heat pump water heater (carbon emissions generated by manufacturing the appliance) are "incurred" sooner. However, the embodied CO2 in a new heat pump water heater is roughly equivalent to the CO2 emitted by your current gas water heater in about 4 months. After those first 4 months, you start reducing your CO2 emissions.
- In other words, the overall carbon savings of switching to electric heat pump water heating VASTLY outweigh the embodied carbon of the new heater.
- To maximize your energy efficiency, look for an ENERGY STAR® certified heat pump water heater.
"...If all electric water heaters sold in the United States were ENERGY STAR certified, we would save more than $8.8 billion each year and prevent nearly 170 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the emissions from more than 16 million vehicles. " – Nate Jutras, ENERGY STAR Certified Products
- Unlike a gas water heater, an electric one won’t leak methane. Methane leaks all along the gas system, from well through pipelines into your house and the appliances, are common. These leaks are exceptionally dangerous for our planet because methane has 80x the global warming effect of carbon dioxide.