William Hoover is a retired employee of A.O. Smith, one of the biggest water heater manufacturers. He now is a consultant and often gives seminars for Pacific Gas and Electric.

He offered one of the most intriguing theories of the ACEEE Hot Water Forum. It was noted in the plenary session of the conference that while heat-pump water heaters and tankless heaters were rapidly expanding their market share, the total numbers are still very small, while the grand bulk of water heater sales are of standard tank-type water heaters

Mr. Hoover postulated that one of the reasons for that was that most people can't afford them. Heat-pump water heaters are seen as the wave of the future because they are twice as efficient as a standard electric water heater, which in one sense, is more efficient than gas heaters. But they also cost a lot more.

Mr. Hoover offered figures to support the idea that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, so that when the old water heater breaks, they buy the cheapest replacement they can find, rather than the best or most efficient. He suggested that if the goal is to shift the country to such heaters, a rental or installment program might make more sense than selling water heaters outright.

This might sound strange to many Americans, but Canadian utilities have long had programs where they own the water heaters and rent them to residents. The utilities have been far more proactive than the average resident in figuring out what makes water heaters break and servicing them for longevity.

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