How to evaluate efficiency of pool heat pump in 2022 ?

 

Pool heat pumps are highly-efficient pool heaters offering exceptional comfort at a low cost throughout the year. It’s important to evaluate the energy efficiency and capacity of the models you are considering when choosing a pool heat pump for your pool. Rather than generating heat, the pool heat pump moves it, which contributes to its efficiency. The traditional British system of energy or heat unit is BTU. 1 BTU is the heat energy required to heat a pound of water from 63 degrees Fahrenheit to 64 degrees Fahrenheit, which is approximately equal to 1,055 joules. The scientific community generally uses the SI system standard unit-Joule to measure energy or heat.

You’ll prefer to choose a heat pump that is capable of delivering the amount of heat you need to keep your pool water at a comfortable temperature even on cooler days.

The coefficient of performance or COP

Usually, we measure Heat pump pool heater efficiency by a value called the coefficient of performance or COP (sometimes CP or CoP). It is a ratio of useful heating or cooling provided to work (energy) required in a cooling or heating system. If 100% efficient, it would be a COP of 1. What is cop?

The COP is usually greater than one in pool heat pumps, as pool heat pumps pump additional heat from a heat source to where the heat is required instead of just converting work to heat (Less work is required to move heat than for conversion into heat).

The test conditions of the federal test program for pool heat pumps are at 80ºF ambient dry bulb, 80% relative humidity, and 80ºF pool water.

COPs usually range from 3.0 to 16.0, which converts to an efficiency of 300%–1600%. This means that for every unit of electricity the compressor runs, the pool heat pump can transfer 3-16 units of heat from the air to the water.

As the higher COP number means less energy is required to transfer the same amount of heat, or more useful heating or cooling is provided to work (energy) in the same energy.

How to calculate the COP?

First, you’ll need two things:

1. Energy out, or the heat pump’s expected output.
2. Energy In, or how much energy it takes to run the heat pump.

In this formula, energy out is the heat pump’s output in Btu/hr, and energy in is the energy required to run the heat pump, measured in watts.

For pool heat pumps, higher COPs equate to higher efficiency, lower energy (power) consumption and thus lower operating costs.

Using these two values, we can complete the formula below:

However, it does not mean that they are really more than 100% efficient, in other words, no heat engine can have a thermal efficiency of 100% or greater according to the energy conservation law. The COP calculations should include the energy consumption of all power-consuming auxiliaries for complete systems.

The COP is highly dependent on operating conditions, especially relative temperature and absolute temperature between pool and system, which is often graphed or averaged against expected conditions. Performance of electric heaters and gas heaters is typically much lower, because they are not heat pumps relying on compression but rely on chemical reactions driven by heat instead.

DO you now know how to determine the efficiency of a heat pump pool heater?

If you have questions about finding an INVERBOOST pool heat pumps with the right capacity and efficiency, our pool service can help you make the right choice.

 

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