The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) contracted with Sustainabilist to review and document ductless heat pump (DHPs or mini-split heat pumps) research and evaluations conducted over the past 15 years. The report explores why utility programs are not achieving the level of savings that were achieved in pilot programs and field tests and presents a set of enhancement measures that could improve program level savings of DHPs to be closer to their technical potential.
These solutions are not primarily “widget-based” enhancements but are mostly approaches to program delivery that use existing incentives to ensure that DHPs are installed and used properly in the right part of the right homes. Integrating the identified enhancements into program measures can increase the amount of electric resistance heat displaced by a DHP.
