Cold Climate Air-Source Heat Pump Demonstration and Analysis: Experimental Study on Cold Temperature Performance

Under Technical Service Agreement TSA-21-17917 with Xcel Energy, NREL conducted laboratory and field research activities to evaluate the performance of current residential ASHP technologies in support of Xcel Energy's carbon-free electricity goals. Results from this research will be used by Xcel Energy to understand the impacts that equipment, environment, and installation choices have on field operation and performance of residential air-source heat pumps. This report focuses on the laboratory experiments. The overall goal of the laboratory evaluation was to measure heat pump performance under a range of real-world heating mode operating conditions. Laboratory characterization was completed on one centrally ducted heat pump and one two-zone MSHP (i.e. a multi-split heat pump).