Northeast Cold Climate heat pump/mini split performance list.

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Brian26

Minister of Fire
Sep 20, 2013
693
Branford, CT
Almost all mini splits as well as most heat pumps are rated by the AHRI (American Heating Refrigeration Institute). The problem is they only test them at 17 and 47 degrees.The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership has a list on their website that has tested cold weather performance numbers down to 5F. This list is a huge asset for those looking at cold weather mini split performance where cold weather numbers are often not published/tested.

Here is my Midea unit for example. Its impressive that at its lowest modulation at 47 degrees the COP is 5.71. So its producing 5.7 the amount of heat compared to an electric resistance heater!

This chart really shows how crazy the efficiency of mini splits running at their lowest capacity is in mild weather.

https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/26509

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Nice find - some of the mini-split installation manuals usually contain input kW data and output BTU data for various temperatures, but I never really knew for sure how to account for the pan heater or defrost consumption. This pretty much confirms for me that the pan heater doesn't consume so much power that it destroys the COP at very low temperatures. I've previously calculated about COP = 2 at 5 deg F temperatures, and this data supports that.
 
I like that database. Thanks for posting.

Is Midea new? I checked out their website and don't find any west coast dealers yet. How do they price compare with Daikin, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu?