Heat Pump Water Heaters in Manufactured Housing
March 17, 2026
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Manufactured homes have the highest energy use intensity of any residential home type, using 40 percent to 50 percent more energy per square foot than other single family homes. Many people who live in manufactured homes have lower income levels, which means the impact of their homes’ high energy usage has an even greater impact to their monthly expenses.
Despite the need for energy efficient technology, virtually no manufactured homes have heat pump water heaters, which are two to four times more efficient than their gas and electric resistance counterparts. Researchers from Alternative Energy Systems Consulting (AESC) and ASK Energy sought to understand how to unlock heat pump water heater adoption in this underserved market.
The project team provided a modeling study, estimating the potential energy, cost, and GHG emissions impacts of installing a prototype heat pump water heater in an existing manufactured home under different water heater system conditions. They found that by using heat pump water heaters in the existing manufactured home stock, California could save approximately 1.75 TBtu of energy, avoid roughly 113,000 tons of CO2e, and see around $1.93 billion in total system benefits.
In the final report, the project team also provides several recommendations to help bring this technology to manufactured housing communities in a cost-effective manner, including include advocating for code and permitting changes, developing narrower heat pump water heater models, and conducting a field study once installation barriers are resolved.
Read the full report for a more in-depth look at the challenges and solutions to this important market transformation work.
The TECH Clean California initiative is funded by California ratepayers and taxpayers and administered by Southern California Edison Company under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission. The TECH Clean California team is led by Energy Solutions and partners with Anchor Blue Consulting, Ardenna Energy, Association of Energy Affordability, Building Decarbonization Coalition, Central Coast Energy Services, Inc., Electrify My Home, Frontier Energy, National Comfort Institute, Energy Outlet, Recurve Analytics, The Ortiz Group, Tre’ Laine Associates, and VEIC.
