How do most people heat water with solar panels and batteries?

[Zwy]

I like the idea of a heat pump water heater, but they lack capacity, recovery and from all the reviews I have seen, are built like shit. I would need 2-3 of them just to handle daily hot water usage (3 girls, Long showers and high flow fixtures). That said, I have toyed with an idea to use excess solar to preheat the water going into my on demand heater in the summer months.

P.S. where the hell are you getting propane that cheap? It is $2.99 a gallon around here..

You can install 80 gallon heat pump water heaters. Or put in a pair of 50 gallon. With that high usage, you would get you money back quickly if you have enough solar power.

Those 3 girls will leave the nest faster than you think and the usage will drop. If you install a heat pump unit now, you will have recovered the cost by the time they leave.

Luckily grain drying last fall didn't take much propane so farmers that had large contracts at the coop didn't need it and the coop had already contracted most of it. One farmer told me the other day he had 3,000 gallon still booked.

The issue is, on top of the heat pump water heater, you have the heat pump, and it sits in the condensate pan. So this electric thingy lives in a swamp, with 100% humidity, all the time.

Therefore, splits tend to last longer...

Don't know what brand you have but the Richmond I have isn't built like that. There should be a pan directly under the coil for condensate. If you are getting water near the circuit board, either the condensate drain is plugged, the water heater isn't level and water runs the wrong direction or it was a poorly engineered product.