Heat pump seasonal performance evaluation: a proposal for a European standard

A new simplified procedure to estimate seasonal performances of an air source heat pump is proposed here, based on a utilization factor method. This method permits one to evaluate heating energy requirement of buildings by a steady-state calculation with monthly average weather data, and it has been adopted by the European Community Technical Committee TC 89, as the basis of new energy standards. The results obtained by this procedure are compared with those by comprehensive computer programs such as DOE and BLAST.