Rheem meets cold climate heat pump challenge
Rheem has announced that one of its heat pumps has met the challenge set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop more efficient heat pumps for cold climates.
Set up in 2021, the DOE’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge is focused on assessing the performance of residential, centrally-ducted, electric-only heat pumps in the Canadian and northern US climate, where temperatures can get much colder than 0ºF.
Rheem improved its existing innovative design to deliver 5% higher COP during heating at 5°F (-15°C) ambient temperature than the DOE challenge specification. The Rheem heat pump is also said to have performed at a 9% higher HSPF2 (heating seasonal performance factor) than the DOE challenge specification.
The HSPF2 rating introduced in the US on January 1, requires all split system heat pumps to have an HSPF2 of 7.5 or higher, and all single-packaged heat pumps to have an HSPF2 of 6.7 or higher.
“We were not surprised that our team of dedicated, innovative engineers at Rheem developed a residential heat pump that was able to provide 77% of nominal heating capacity at -15°F ambient temperature and provided uninterrupted heating operation at -23°F ambient temperature surpassing expectations and delivering top quality performance,” commented Rheem product manager Jeff Goss.