From pv magazine global
Johnson Controls is developing residential heat pumps for cold climates, under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge.
The heating tech manufacturer currently offers two residential heat pumps that meet the U.S. Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) Cold Climate Air Source Heat Pump specification – the York YZV and York HMH7. The cold climate heat pumps operate at temperatures up to 5 F and have a heating season performance factor (HSPF) of up to 10.5 and a coefficient of performance (COP) at 5 F above “2.”
“In the coming years, we’ll have heat pumps that maintain full heating capacity at 5 F and efficiently heat spaces down into negative temperature territory,” a Johnson Controls’ spokesperson told pv magazine. “This level of performance will be critical to maintaining a clean, resilient grid during winter peak periods.”
Under the Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge, the company will develop and commercialize heat pumps for temperatures equal to or below -20 F. While the York YZV and York HMH7 use R-410A refrigerant, the next-generation heat pumps will use R-454B. The spokesperson claimed that this “will cut the global warming potential (GWP) of the refrigerant by nearly 80%.”
The company said it hopes the cold-climate heat pumps will be certified to AHRI Standard 1380. The spokesperson said that this “will enable utilities and aggregators to ask connected heat pumps to reduce power consumption to 70%, 40%, and shut-off, depending on the level of curtailment needed.” Heat pumps that successfully pass the challenge will have to provide such grid-interaction services.
Carrier, Lennox, and Ireland-based Trane Technologies have also developed prototypes for the field-testing phase of the challenge.
