Atlanta-headquartered Rheem‘s heat pump has been given an “exemplary performance” nod in the US Department of Energy’s Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge.

DOE launched the Heat Pump Challenge because, according to the program’s fact sheet, “additional efforts are needed to address common technical and market barriers to wider adoption by consumers – which include performance at temperatures of 5F and below, installation challenges, and electricity grid impacts during peak demand periods.”

In other words, we need them to work reliably in cold climates. That’s because heating and/or cooling a home, along with water heating, account for 40% of the primary energy consumption in buildings in the US and are a major source of emissions.

DOE is working with manufacturers to lab test the performance of cold climate heat pumps. Field testing will take place over the next couple of years.

Besides Rheem, other manufacturers, such as Johnson Controls, Carrier, Trane, and Bosch, are also taking part in the challenge.

Rheem reports that the DOE determined that its residential heat pump delivered outstanding results in the challenge.

Rheem improved its existing design to deliver 5% higher COP – the ratio of how much useful heat a heat pump will produce if it’s given a certain energy input – during heating at 5F ambient temperature than the DOE challenge specification.

The Rheem heat pump also performed at a 9% higher HSPF2 (heating seasonal performance factor) than the DOE challenge specification.

Jeff Goss, director, product management, at Rheem, said:

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 −15F ambient temperature [where the heat pump is stored] and provided uninterrupted heating operation at −23F ambient temperature, surpassing expectations and delivering top quality performance.

The DOE is aiming for deployment and commercialization in 2024 after field testing.

Read more: Here are 5 vital things you need to know about heat pumps

Photo: Rheem

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