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ColumnsPlumbing & Mechanical ContractorPlumbing & Mechanical Engineer Radiant & Hydronics

Letters to the Editor: The Heat Pump Water Heater Debate

Industry veteran sounds off on electrification, natural gas, and water heating technologies

By Plumbing & Mechanical Editorial Staff
Letters to the Editor
Photo courtesy of BNP Media/Courtney Fathers
October 9, 2026

The following remarks were made regarding the article “Is the Industry Ready for Heat Pump Water Heaters?” written by Kristen Bayles, associate editor, published in the June 2026 issue of Plumbing & Mechanical.

Hello,

I am a retired plumbing contractor from Los Angeles who now lives in North Carolina. I sold my business that I started in September 1996. After selling my business, I became the training manager for two of the largest service and repair businesses in California.

If you do some research, you will find that two attorneys several years ago wrote to the Department of Energy about how terrible natural gas appliances were. This is all political. During the last federal administration, they clamped down on natural gas, pushing the heat pump idea. If you go onto the EPA website, you will learn that the current carbon footprint the United States puts on the planet is between 5-10% of the world's pollution. If India, China, and Russia do nothing to curb their carbon footprint, then we are wasting our time, money and effort to reduce it any more than we are doing.

In Los Angeles county and Los Angeles city, you cannot get a building permit to build a house if you intend on using gas appliances.

Several plumbing contractors got together with the chief plumbing inspector with the city and provided him with the spec sheets showing that condensing tankless water heaters don't produce any more carbon emissions than heat pump heaters. They are 97-98% carbon free. He then said that he would allow those heaters to be used but no additional appliances can be added.

And if you want to use a heat pump heater, you will need to size it up to get the needed hot water in your home and I am told that the price will be three times what a tank type heater costs. 

Natural gas is a very efficient way to heat your home, your water, and for use on cook tops (unless you want to buy the latest greatest electric cooktops that are not cheap). As for power plants, nuclear is the safest by far, and then it's natural gas. All of those solar panels and windmills cannot produce what our needs are, not counting on what data centers will need.

The water heater manufacturers don't like heat pumps either but can't sound off like I am. They have to fit in...I don't.  I sold my business in 2006.

Thanks for your time.

Eddie Edwards, founder, The Drain Surgeon, Inc

Have something to say? Submit a letter to the editors here. 

KEYWORDS: heat pump water heater (HPWH) letters to the editor water heaters

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