Heat Pump Manufacturers Develop Next-Gen Prototypes to Withstand Subfreezing Weather

The U.S. Department of Energy announced that four additional heat pump manufacturers successfully produced heat pump prototypes as part of the Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge, a DOE initiative to accelerate the deployment of heat pump technologies by supporting innovation and manufacturing.

Launched in 2021, this initiative brings together public and private sector stakeholders to address technical challenges and market barriers to adopting next-generation cold-climate heat pumps — a key clean energy technology that can potentially save households $500 a year or more on their utility bills, while also slashing harmful carbon emissions.

The challenge specifies that prototypes deliver 100% heating capacity without the use of auxiliary heat and with significantly higher efficiencies at 5 F.

Bosch, Daikin, Midea and Johnson Controls will join previously announced partners Lennox International, Carrier, Trane Technologies and Rheem in the next phase of the challenge, which is expected to involve the installation and monitoring of more than 23 prototypes in various cold-climate locations throughout the U.S. and Canada over the next year.

With eight manufacturing partners successfully passing the laboratory testing stage in the challenge, DOE is turning to the nearly 30 state, utility and other partners that were part of the original challenge commitments to encourage the adoption of CCHPs. DOE will continue to work with partners to develop programs, incentives, education and outreach campaigns that help consumers better understand the benefits of these new designs.

The Residential CCHP Technology Challenge is part of the Initiative for Better Energy, Emissions, and Equity (E3 Initiative) run by DOE’s Building Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. DOE is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Canada on this effort.