A hybrid water heater? What’s that, you ask? Well, GE has made just such a product that utilizes heat pump technology in combination with traditional electric elements, which pulls heat from surrounding air and transfers it to the tank. This process creates the same amount of hot water as a traditional water heater, but can reduce energy expenses up to 62%. And they just won the Popular Science “Best of What’s New” Award for developing it:

Each year the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year; breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. Best of What‘s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 11 categories: Automotive, Aviation & Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, Green Technology, Home Entertainment, Security, Home Technology, Personal Health and Recreation.

So how exactly does a hybrid water heater work? Well, a compressor and evaporator are integrated into the electric water heater unit and the evaporator draws in ambient heat from surrounding air using two variable speed fans. Electric coils wrap the tank all the way to the bottom to transfer this heat into the tank and heat the water. The units have several different modes that can be set at home which can further your energy savings:

Hybrid mode – While the unit uses the heat pump as its primary means to heat the water, the standard electric elements may activate if a faster water temperature recovery time is needed. When the system determines that demand has been met, it will automatically revert back to using the heat pump only.

High Demand mode – This is a great feature if you have guests spending the weekend and need increased amounts of hot water. High Demand mode operates very similar to Hybrid mode, but lets the system know in advance that it will be experiencing a larger water demand than usual. The water heater will be faster to react to temperature recovery by cycling on the heating elements sooner and for a longer duration of time.

Standard mode – This mode shuts off the heat pump and only uses the electric elements to heat the water, just like a standard electric water heater. Standard mode allows for operation in extremely cold situations (less than 45°F) where heat pump functionality would not be ideal.

Vacation setting – With this setting, the system will drop the temperature set point to 50°F to save energy, while also preventing the water from freezing.

This looks like a pretty cool product that would work well in most houses, so congrats to GE for developing it and for winning this award.