Are heat pumps as good as solar water heaters?
They are different. If you are willing to risk not having hot water once in a while but get your hot water for free after the cost of installing the system or just to have an electric or gas backup. The heat pump is going to work any time you have power which is probably pretty much always but it costs money to run it after you have paid to install it. I have a geothermal heat pump to heat and cool my home in Wisconsin. In summer it does heat most of my water by cooling the house but it still does not run for free. In my opinion if your just thinking about the hot water go solar because once it is in it pretty much is running for free and I like free.
