DOE announces breakthrough in residential cold climate heat pump technology

Reminds me of this company: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blueheartenergy.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blueheartenergy.com&#x2F;</a><p>The claims are pretty amazing. High efficiency, efficient over a wide range of temperature difference, high temperature differences possible.<p>The operating principle is totally different. It is based on acoustic waves. Not using phase-changes but just the ideal gas law (pressure and temperature are proportional). I tried to get my head around it, and I got it with a standing sound wave. But they use a traveling wave, for which I could not find explanations I understood.<p>The general idea is &quot;lower air pressure and move gas to cold side so the gas heats up&quot; followed by &quot;raise air pressure and move gas to warm side so the gas cools down&quot;. That means the low pressure needs to be low enough that the gas gets colder than the cold side, and the high pressure needs to be high enough that the gas gets hotter than the hot side. Luckily that is &#x27;just&#x27; a matter of amplitude of the sound wave. I think this is how they achieve their wide range of efficient temperature deltas.<p>That wide range is the main difference with a phase-change based unit. The phase change happens at a much more difficult to change temperature.

There is plenty of opportunity in being more efficient. To give an example, houses in the Bay Area has gray&#x2F;black roofs. In the summer such roof receives about 10kW of energy and readily converts it into heat. Heat, which we are trying to evacuate from the house with our super-efficient heat pumps in the air-conditioning units.<p>If only we&#x27;d painted these roofs with white reflective roof paint (~92% reflection). We would have removed ~8kW of heating from such roofs! And then, maybe, we wouldn&#x27;t have to pump all that energy into air-conditioning. So the surrounding air would be cooler, less noise would be heard from air conditioning, less energy would be spent. And the cost? 4 gallons of white reflective paint and a couple of hours of work, painting the roof...

“Lennox International… developed the first prototype that achieved the Technology Challenge’s standards about a year ahead of schedule. The prototype delivers 100% heating at 5°F at double the efficiency, and 70% to 80% heating at -5°F and -10°F.”<p>The release goes on to say they expect commercialization and deployment in 2024.

I wish governments worldwide would boost this industry and get these heat pumps in the hands of people as fast as possible.<p>I live in the Netherlands that has one of the highest use of rooftop solar and generally energy conscious government and people. I bought a house recently and while doing some changes before moving in, my top priority was to get rid of Gas for heating and replace it with an all electric solution and supplement the power by as many solar panels as possible. As good as my intent is, I literally have €25K in the bank waiting to be spent for this, and the government gives a subsidy for essentially halving the cost of a heat pump, I could not get one until day mid next year!!! It is such a disappointment.<p>The intent is in the right place to encourage people to buy heat pumps, people are also willing. However, the chip shortage, and the insane labour crisis of qualified people who could install this is making the end result unattainable.<p>My wish is for the European Union to use any emergency powers it has to subsidise&#x2F;mandate&#x2F;beg the companies to mass manufacture heat pumps and solve the installation problem- train more people on this trade for free? Make it tax free to earn money by working as a heat pump installer? Anything…<p>Now, there is added incentive in the form of the need to get rid of Russian Gas. The time is now. Heat pumps already makes economic sense, it helps with climate goals, it boosts economy. I wish things happen sooner than later.

Technology Connections on Youtube has a great video series on how heat pumps work, why they&#x27;re important environmentally and what kind of power cost savings they can bring. The second video is a longer guide for people who want to get a heat pump.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;MFEHFsO-XSI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;MFEHFsO-XSI</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;43XKfuptnik" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;43XKfuptnik</a>

What a misleading clickbait headline.<p>This isn&#x27;t a technology breakthrough, this is a DOE policy&#x2F;partnership&#x2F;funding &quot;breakthrough&quot;.

This doesn’t sound any better than the efficiency of Mitsubishi&#x2F;Trane “hyper heat” heat pumps, which are already on the market.

We recently converted our house to 100% heat pumps. The models we have are efficient down to like 0F and continue to work down to -15F (lower than the record low here). So this tech is novel but already consumer available. We have Fujitsu Halcyon XLTH models and commercial units that are less common for residential.

What’s the breakthrough on the tech old level? What did they discover?

&gt;&gt; The prototype delivers 100% heating at 5°F at double the efficiency, and 70% to 80% heating at -5°F and -10°F.<p>Double the efficiency of what? All existing technology or something else? Do they simply mean the COP is 2.0?

That&#x27;s great news. I have a heat pump in my house, but still need to use the gas furnace when the temp drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.<p>A repair person goofed the settings last January, and I didn&#x27;t notice the furnace wasn&#x27;t kicking in until the end of February. My electric bill went from $150-ish for Feb 2021 to $450-ish for Feb 2022.

Lab vs typical observed performance differs quite widely for many home heating systems.<p>Thats because typically each appliance is tested at optimal conditions (eg. water flow rates). Then, in a real deployment, every parameter differs a little from optimal (eg. the water may circulate slower than expected because you have longer pipes around your home than the lab ones, and your hot water tank is hotter than expected because you like it set hot, and your airflow is less than expected because the filter is a bit blocked, etc.). Each knocks a few percentage points off the efficiency, but the overall impact can be dramatic.<p>We really need &#x27;smarter&#x27; heating systems which can detect and correct for such things. For example, water and air pumps which measure temperatures and flow rates of air&#x2F;water, and adjust speeds up and down to maintain the optimal efficiency point.

“Tapping into the emerging clean energy market is a huge economic opportunity that will bring a bolstered manufacturing sector, good paying jobs, and a brighter, cleaner future to <i>Texas</i> and communities across America.”<p>If anyone else is confused by this, it&#x27;s because Lennox is headquartered in Texas.

I wonder if the ideas used here can make low temperature geothermal systems more efficient. An example is the 760 kW system at Chena Hot Springs, 50 miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska. The system there uses hot water from said springs to generate power using repurposed refrigeration technology.

&gt; The prototype delivers 100% heating at 5°F at double the efficiency, and 70% to 80% heating at -5°F and -10°F<p>So, 2 EER (2x of resistive heat) at 5F, 1.8 at -5F and 1.6 at -10F? Is that right? Seems awkwardly worded.

The Technology Connections guy is going to be vindicated!

Interesting to see heat pumps come up more and more these days. As a lot of comments here point out, heat pump technology is already pretty good, even in cold climates.<p>It seems to me a lot of the barriers to adoption in the US are lack of awareness from consumers and widespread support from installers. The equipment for a heat pump shouldn’t be much more expensive then an air conditioner since they share so many parts, but that isn’t the case in practice.<p>I think government regulations that encourage heat pumps manufacturing and installation are part of the solution. For examples, Biden administration recently issued orders to use the Defense Production Act to produce heat pumps [0] or NYC banning new natural gas hook ups for heating [1].<p>The other part of heat pumps adoption is making them exciting for consumers. It feels like if you get the right combo of all of that, heat pumps could be the next electric vehicle.<p>I only recently learned about heat pumps and found it difficult to understand how they worked and potential benefits. Towards that end, I started hacking on this tool for others to get that info: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heatpumpswork.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heatpumpswork.com</a><p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.whitehouse.gov&#x2F;briefing-room&#x2F;presidential-actions&#x2F;2022&#x2F;06&#x2F;06&#x2F;memorandum-on-presidential-determination-pursuant-to-section-303-of-the-defense-production-act-of-1950-as-amended-on-electric-heat-pumps&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.whitehouse.gov&#x2F;briefing-room&#x2F;presidential-action...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;12&#x2F;15&#x2F;22837799&#x2F;new-york-city-bans-gas-hookups-new-buildings" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;12&#x2F;15&#x2F;22837799&#x2F;new-york-city-b...</a>

I&#x27;ll believe it when I see it marketed. Even if it works I doubt it will be within financial reach for most people.

Once again the headline does not match the claim in the article. This is not a breakthrough in terms of technology. This is the announcement of a partnership. There was no &quot;breakthrough&quot;. This is government advertising for a private sector company that frankly is beginning to resemble corporate fascism.

hmm as someone about to purchase a heat pump system for heat in a northern climate I am not sure if I should wait...<p>is this an announcement of a breakthrough or a challenge to find a breakthrough?

One thing I do t see many mentioning is the low temp heat pumps currently available are pretty expensive last I checked (think $15k), that’s simply not feasible for most people. We need something in the 4-8k range so the average joe can justify it. Perhaps this new set will be cheaper.

When I read the title, I wonder why air to water and air to ground heat pumps aren&#x27;t more common in cold climates. Where it is 0°f on the surface, a few feet deep and you&#x27;re back to 46°f.<p>So we could have had efficiency 10 years ago instead of today?

&quot;can save families as much as $500 a year on their utility bills&quot;.... ehhh, people affected by an extra 500 per year arent going to fork over 20k for a new system that will save only 500 per year.

&gt; Cold climate heat pumps (CCHPs) can provide high-efficiency heating in freezing temperatures without producing greenhouse gas emissions and can save families as much as $500 a year on their utility bills.<p>That&#x27;s like one month of heat for free. A welcome respite, but hardly revolutionary. Slashing emissions is awesome though.

Can you use the same tech to cool a house? That would seem to be much more needed given the climate trends (warming) and demographic trends (moving to Southern US States).

With natural gas hitting four times it&#x27;s cost last year, couldn&#x27;t come at a better time. Next winter, heat will cost more than rent in Chicago.

Could this be useful in electric cars? I know they spend a lot on heating the cabin.

So 10k+ outlay to save under $500&#x2F;year. That would take only 20+ years to pay off. The wall units are kind of flimsy. Expect at least one to break. And that $500 in savings is probably $300&#x2F;year in reality. Its still a great option for some places, just not really to switch over from a gas furnace.

Does anyone know why there has never been any breakthroughs in air conditioning for 50 years? Windows air conditioners have been incredibly heavy, loud, expensive, and resource-intensive for so long. Even a small room needs one that is back-breaking to install. And pretty much everyone in the world (except those with central air) needs a couple of air conditioners now.<p>Sure the &quot;efficiency&quot; is improving but it&#x27;s mainly tricks for turning it on&#x2F;off at better times. I know there are some U-shaped ones now, but it&#x27;s just a slightly different styling.<p>Edit: two commenters pointed out examples of air conditioners which are 77 lbs and 56 lbs. As a comparison, the OSHA recommended lifting weight is 50 lbs. I would love to see someone apply Apple&#x27;s obsession with thinner, lighter, &quot;revolutionary new design&quot; to ACs.

Big news for us NorthEasters. Propane and oil are going up.

Anyone know how this compares to a geothermal system?

I don’t believe in breakthroughs anymore until I see a shipping product. I don’t care if you are a scientist, company, government agency, or NGO same thing applies.<p>Tell me you’ve made an incremental improvement and I’ll believe you, tell me you’ve made a breakthrough and either you’re lying or something will prevent it from being realized before commercial availability. This is what decades of press releases and articles that might as well be press releases have taught me.

Great, now if someone can crack the engineering challenge of installing a name-brand heat pump for less than $18,000 (CAD) that&#x27;d be great.

DOE should probably be capitalized as it&#x27;s unlikely that a doe (a deer, a female deer. . .) came through with a technological breakthrough ;)

Since DOE is an initialism and not an acronym, the capitalization in the title is incorrect. It should be &quot;DOE&quot;.

P.R. with zero tech details is indistinguishable from 100% balonie.

Cheapest thing to do is remove all exterior drywall, spray foam everything and call it a day.

So much air in this statement, but almost zero raw numbers.<p>In the mean time, there are good quality air&#x2F;water heat pumps on the market in Europe. Look at the Nibe F2120 for example. It blows this thing out of the water. It has a COP of 2.5 at -25C...

Clever Deers..

At some point, it would be great to use a natural gas powered engine to run a heat pump. You could then use the exhaust gas as a heat source for the heat pump, possibly eliminating the need for a pre-heater.<p>Cooling the output should increase the Carnot efficiency of the motor.<p>Heating the outside air intake with that heat should be sufficient to avoid the need for an electrical resistance pre-heater.<p>This combination could also run on propane, ethanol, gasified wood, etc. Anything that gets burned now could be used to create far more heat output than straight up combustion.<p>There&#x27;s got to be a flaw in this idea, math&#x2F;physics wise.