Washington, District of Columbia — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump (CCHP) Technology Challenge is heating up. Four heat pump manufacturers are joining the challenge — Bosch, Daikin, Midea, and Johnson Controls. They join the ranks of Lennox, Carrier, Trane, and Rheem.
The new successful heat pump prototypes will join in on the field testing stage of the challenge. The challenge has two segments, the 5 F and the -15 F challenge. The 5 F challenge is for CCHPs optimized optimized for 5 F (-15 C) operation. While the -15 F challenge is for CCHP optimized for -15 F (-26 C) operation.
The next stage of the 5 F challenge involves installing and monitoring more than 23 prototypes in various cold-climate locations throughout the U.S. and Canada over the next year.
Eight companies, Bosch, Carrier, Daikin, Johnson Controls, Lennox, Midea, Rheem and Trane, will now participate in the field testing phase of the 5 F challenge.
Lennox developed the first prototype that achieved the challenge’s lab testing standards, delivering 100 percent heating at 5 F (-15C) at double the efficiency and 70 per cent to 80 per cent heating at -5 F (-20 C) and -10 F (-23 C).
Established in 2021, the challenge called on manufacturers of residential, centrally ducted, electric-only heat pumps to promote the adoption of efficient cold-climate heat pumps.