Hybrid Electric Water Heater

So, if this thing uses ambient heat it makes the room it's in cooler. For half the year it's substituting room heating costs for water heating costs.

First, you must determine whether or not the water heater is in a "conditioned space" which is defined as a room of the house that supplies return air to the HVAC system. Typically water heaters are in "unconditioned spaces" such as garages, basements, and attics, which do not provide an air supply to the HVAC system. Therefore, any heat removed from these spaces by the hybrid water heater would not need to be replaced by the furnace. If the hybrid water heater is in a conditioned space inside the home such as in a utility room, it will lessen the load on the AC system during cooling months and increase the load on the furnace during heating months. If the number of cooling months equals the number of heating months, these effects will roughly offset, and the user will still experience all the energy saving benefits of the hybrid water heater. If cooling months exceed heating months, this will be an additional benefit to home energy savings beyond the savings of the hybrid water heater itself.

True; it's a heat pump. There's another technology which is now in production, which prewarms water going into the heater by passively extracting it from wastewater. That would be a more efficient system.
www.inventure.ca/Drainergy.html

Hey Brian, thanks for the 'drainergy' link, looks like a good product and I'm sure it's a lot less than $1600. Keith, thank you for a great explanation of operational cost for the hybrid heat pump. Check out the 200% efficient Acadia at www.gotohallowell.com