First, from all the ones I’ve installed, they have all been all in one units with the heat pump on top of the tank that use the room air as the source. Not saying split hp water heaters don’t exist, I just haven’t seen any. The install for these units is practically identical to a standard electric water heater except you need to pipe a drain for the condensate.
The ones I’ve seen also include a resistive element and can act in a hybrid mode where they heat the water mostly with the heat pump, but can use resistive to boost the temp.
First, from all the ones I’ve installed, they have all been all in one units with the heat pump on top of the tank that use the room air as the source. Not saying split hp water heaters don’t exist, I just haven’t seen any. The install for these units is practically identical to a standard electric water heater except you need to pipe a drain for the condensate.
The ones I’ve seen also include a resistive element and can act in a hybrid mode where they heat the water mostly with the heat pump, but can use resistive to boost the temp.