High performance, cost-effective HVAC* systems for residential and commercial buildings

Project location: CanmetENERGY Ottawa, Ottawa, ON

Timeline: 5 years (2023-2028)

Program: Funded by the Program of Energy R&D

Project Overview and Objectives

Balancing Affordability, Efficiency, and Emissions

The Challenge

Heating and cooling Canada’s homes and buildings is a significant expense for occupants. It also contributes substantially to Canada’s total energy end-use (21%) and greenhouse gas emissions (18%) according to the National Energy End-Use Database.

Our Solution

Low Global Warming Potential (GWP) Advanced Cold Climate Heat Pumps research focuses on developing, demonstrating and enhancing market opportunities for these heating and cooling systems. Our goal is to make them more affordable for Canadian homes and buildings while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In-Field System Performance

equipment used in laboratory testing — **Laboratory Testing**

Equipment used during prototype development — **Prototype Development**

screenshot of the NRCan webpage that houses guides and tools — **Guides and Tools**

Figure 1: Low Global Warming Potential Advanced Cold Climate Heat Pumps

Project Activities

We achieve our objectives through various laboratory and analytical activities, including:

Developing and testing near-market systems: We evaluate the performance and cost-effectiveness of cold-climate capable, low-GWP heat pump systems ready for near-term adoption.
Investigating next-generation systems: We explore advanced heat pump designs aimed at achieving long-term zero-carbon targets. This includes integrating renewable energy sources and thermal storage into the system.
Evaluating the performance impacts of ultra-low GWP / natural refrigerants: We investigate new refrigerants and explore their performance impacts on cold climate air source heat pump systems. We evaluate the consequential life cycle impacts of heat pump systems versus other heating and cooling system types.
Creating industry resources: We develop design guides, tools, and test procedures to address knowledge gaps and support the wider adoption of low-GWP cold climate heat pump systems.

Maximizing Impact

We achieve impact through various activities:

Improving existing systems: We collaborate with manufacturers to identify and implement performance improvements for current and near-market heat pumps. We leverage unique testing capabilities at our CanmetENERGY Ottawa lab and the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT) to achieve this.
Developing new systems: We design, develop, and demonstrate new heat pump technologies through in-house prototyping and collaboration with industry and academia.
Informing modelling teams: We use lab-derived performance data to inform modelling teams, ensuring accurate evaluations of cost-effectiveness, energy savings, and greenhouse gas reduction potential.
Developing standards and tools: We leverage our testing expertise to raise the bar for performance evaluation, ensuring manufacturers' claims reflect real-world operation. Additionally, we create guides and tools to address industry knowledge gaps.

Stakeholder & Partners

This initiative involves and integrates Canadian and Multi-National Manufacturers, Canadian Contractors, Designers and Installers, Industry and Industry Associations, Academia, United States Department of Energy and its National Laboratories, and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Selected Publications

Contact CanmetENERGY Ottawa

To learn more about this project, email our Office of Research Partnerships and External Relations.

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