Electric water heaters are outrageous now. Because now they are heat pump water heaters making them more costly and more prone to breakdown and failure.
1) The air intake of my water heater has a duct I installed to draw air in from the attic above it into the water heater's air intake vent. By taking in warm air from the attic, the water heater doesn't have to run as long to find enough heat to warm the water tank. Might as well utilize the free heat in the attic to get some use out of it.
2) I added another duct to the water heater: on the air output vent. I flip a wye lever twice per year: during the warm 7 or 8 months of the year I use that free cold air from the water heater to help cool the house by making it go into an air receiver for my HVAC. Might as well use the free cold air from the water heater. This makes the water heater work in concert with my HVAC (a variable-speed heat pump) so that the two appliances are not only efficient as stand alone appliances, but together they work better than the sum of their parts. When the cool months begin I flip the wye lever to duct the cold air from the water heater away from my living quarters into the attic.
The way I see it, the less energy I need to have the same creature comforts, then the less the Dims' warmageddon cult energy policies drain my wallet with their sky high energy prices.