The objective of this topic area was to seek solutions to support the deployment of heat pumps (HP) for space conditioning and water heating (HPWH). Heat pump technology continues to evolve and advance to improve efficiencies and expand the range of applications for replacing legacy HVAC and water heating systems. As DoD moves towards heat pump adoption, DoD and contractor staff need resources and informational support at various levels of decision making (of deploying heat pumps), including procurement, design (for new construction and retrofit applications), installation, operation, and maintenance.

Quality installation, commissioning, and maintenance of the equipment is critical to long-term reliable and efficient performance of the HVAC equipment. Solutions are needed to provide DoD staff and contractors with the right tools and information to make informed decisions to select the right HP technology for the right application, and the ability to install, operate and maintain new HP technologies. Of particular interest were solutions that:

• Provide tools and informative resources to key stakeholders responsible for the selection, design and procurement of HVAC and water heating systems.
• Enable installation staff to verify the quality installation and commissioning of HP and HPWH systems installed by contractors/installers.
• Leverage related resources, programs and investments by the Department of Energy related to workforce development and scaling HP/HPWH deployment.
• Provide innovative methods to deliver training and technical support to DoD and contractor staff responsible for the operations and maintenance of HP/HPWH systems on military installations.

Tools and resources to provide informational support to DoD installations will help ensure quality installation and commissioning of new advanced high efficiency heat pumps and heat pump water heaters, long-term efficient and reliable performance of the systems, and reduced costs.

As DoD accelerates heat pump adoption to meet the clean energy, and zero emission goals, there is a gap in the availability of required resources at all levels of decision making at installations to make informed decisions in selecting the right technology for the right application and maintaining the operation of the equipment. With technologies getting more advanced, training of HVAC and plumbing professionals to install high quality heat pumps and heat pump water heaters has become a priority to ensure the performance of the systems. High efficiencies of heat pumps aren’t always realized in the field due to improper installation or maintenance of the systems, resulting in decreased performance, reliability concerns, and eventual failures. A study by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Sensitivity analysis of installation faults on Heat Pump performance, concluded that improper installation practices of Heat Pumps could result in energy use increase by 30%.

There is a systematic lack of training, awareness, and experience with advanced HPs across DoD, including contractors, ESCOs/utilities, installation staff (engineers, O&M staff), engineering firms, designers, and management. Contractors lack the training and resources to correctly install and maintain complex advanced HP technologies, such as Variable Refrigerant Flow, resulting in unit’s poor performance or even failures. Installation staff often lack the ability (time, knowledge, or authority) to ensure that the units are properly installed and commissioned. Contractors who execute alternatively financed projects often are risk averse and prefer to work with familiar technologies.