Reliability of the European energy label for heating appliances – optimization of test standards for heat pumps

Panel: 7. Appliances, products, lighting and ICT

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Carsten Palkowski, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung BAM, Section S.4 Ecodesign and Energy Labelling, Germany
Dr. Moritz-Caspar Schlegel, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing
Dr. Floris Akkerman, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing
Dr. Anne Simo, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing

Abstract

In consideration of climate change issues engineers and scientists are working continuously on new innovations especially in the energy sector. There is huge potential in energy saving when it comes to heating which represents the majority of the energy consumption in domestic appliances. Especially heat pumps represent a promising high efficiency technology to reach the targets of the Paris climate change conference 2015. To guarantee transparency and motivation for improving energy consumption and efficiency the EU established the directives in Eco-Design and Energy Labelling. On the European level currently a dynamic development in legislating new implementing measures for these directives is taking place. In this context manufacturers and surveillance agencies require reliable, quick and competitive energy efficiency test methods. The European standards EN14511 and EN14825 give instructions for a standardized procedure in testing the energy efficiency of heat pumps with electrically driven compressors for space heating and cooling.

In this contribution these standards are analyzed and validated. It is found that these currently used methods implicate high complexity, high financial effort and reveal significant deviations between data measured in laboratory and in field tests. For certain types of construction, e.g. air sourced heat pumps, the standard procedures may have problems in delivering repeatable and reproducible results in inter and also intra laboratory tests. For a comprehensive investigation round robin tests with independent and accredited laboratories are carried out. In a second part additional performance tests with varied parameters are conducted. The project aims at developing an optimized test procedure that improves feasibility of testing for market surveillance. It should deliver reproducible results and be compatible to the state of the art in heat pump technology.