Well I'm the orginal poster from nearly a year ago I posted this thread-I live about 3 hours round trip from a Home Depot out in the boonies of Humboldt county.
I was looking at the Home Depot store site at the 50 gallon reem hybrids and they had only one and it was listed as a close out -normally 1,699 and the close out was $850.I called the store and bought it over the phone that night. I looked up that model number on golden state rebates for our state and that model qualifies for a $700 off the purchase price at the store so in the am I called again and they ran my coupon number and said it was valid but I needed to be there in person to clain the discount so later that day I drove up and had them cancel my sale and start fresh and bought that Reem hybrid for $162 dollars inculding tax. So when the weather warms I will wire my lean to shed on house that contains my water heater ,I’m in the process of installing a solar hot water tank from roof water panels (80 gallon) and water mineral tank, along with a central vacuum, condensate drain, and water filter system to accommodate this new tank, and pull out the gas one. I’ll also vent the doors more and pull some 240 wire into it to see what savings can be had, and I’ll need to reach out to
Rheem phone number for any further assistance with the installation. Its almost teh shortes solar day of the year and I still have battery power thru the nights and in am have about 50% of my 22.5kw bank (can only draw down to 30%) so I have some spare still to power said hot water heat pump i the dead of winter. We shall see if can work on the Northside in 40-60 degree wet winters. Not much to lose with less than 200$ inversted so far in this test.