Steve Scarbrough knows exactly where he’s staying next time he heads to the far north.
It’s a little house up in Alaska, less than 1,000 square feet, and it’s got two heat pumps, a furnace, and a heat pump water heater — all provided by LG Air Conditioning Technologies USA, where Scarbrough is senior vice president and general manager.
In other words, it’s a “real, live home” to test out various different heating systems in a super cold climate.
Scarbrough was up there for the ribbon cutting and got to see it firsthand.
“I don’t have to stay in a hotel anymore!” he said. “I’m just going to come stay in this house because I know it’s going to be warm no matter what time of year it is.”
All joking aside, it’s an excellent site for real-world, cold-climate testing. Speaking at a roundtable press conference February 10 at AHR Expo in Orlando, Scarbrough joined two panelists to share insights gathered from LG’s work with the Consortium for Advanced Heat Pump Research.
“One of the most complicated issues that we have in United States is satisfying all of the climate regions,” he said.
Over the last few years, LG has partnered with the University of Alaska in Anchorage and in Fairbanks to perform testing in some of the more extreme climates low ambient climates to provide proof of concept, as LG continues to expand its range of low ambient heating in the negative teens and below.
Doing cold-climate heat pump research in Alaska makes sense, said panelist Getu Hailu, a University of Alaska professor of mechanical engineering and researcher for the Consortium. People are scattered everywhere — meaning no consolidated gas lines infrastructure — and the price of oil to run heating systems is outrageous.
In a recent test, the little home’s cold climate heat pumps “definitely” outperformed the traditional furnace, reported Sunwoo Kim, another University of Alaska professor and Consortium researcher. The heat pumps even provided heating at -40°F.
“That’s the message that I’m trying to get across to builders and developers and contractors across the country: The stuff works,” said Terry Frisenda, LG’s national business development manager. “It’s not smoke and mirrors. It’s working. There’s real-life examples — Alaska, Montana, you can go down the list. This stuff works just like it’s engineered to.”
No surprise, heat pumps featured heavily at LG’s booth this AHR Expo.
“If you look around our booth, what you’re going to notice is heat pump, heat pump, heat pump,” said Scarbrough. Next up in the company’s LG Red line is the LG Red Core — their newest cold-climate heat pump, rated for even colder temperatures than previous Red models.
“If you look around the booth here, you’re going to see some of our products rated as low as -31°F now and still performing at those kinds of temperatures,” said Frisenda.
Over the next 5-20 years, Hailu predicts the Consortium will become an innovation hub where LG can perform more research and conduct simulations.
And as more up-and-coming HVAC engineers at University of Alaska develop and train at the lab, added Kim, they’ll be able to provide even better support on new cold-climate technologies — including those that tie in with renewables.
“As we look to displace fossil fuel at the ground level — and as we go throughout the U.S., we’re looking to displace fossil fuels in everything that we do … we have to look at very efficient electric products to be able to operate efficiently off solar, wind, hydronic, whatever that may be,” said Scarbrough. “[We need to] start thinking about energy storage: highly efficient electric products that are reliable, and they can operate off of the grid.”