ClimateMaster sources have announced the company received a 2013 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine, for its Trilogy Q-Mode geothermal heat pump system. The award — which was presented in July 2013 by an independent panel of judges and R&D Magazine editors — was based on the Trilogy Q-Mode's exceptional technological significance, including the distinction of being the first geothermal heat pump to be certified by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) to exceed 40 EER at ground-loop (GLHP) conditions.
“ClimateMaster has a solid track record of leadership and innovation since its founding in 1957,” said ClimateMaster president Daniel Ellis. “We are very proud to continue that legacy with the launch of the new Trilogy Q-Mode, which is 33% more efficient than any other geothermal heat pump available, and the only one with Q-Mode technology to provide year-round water heating.”
The ClimateMaster Trilogy Q-Mode, developed collaboratively with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), received the 2013 R&D 100 Award in the “Energy Technology” category, and was evaluated on its design, development, testing, and production elements. (See the product featured on the ORNL website here.)
Since 1963, the R&D 100 Awards have identified revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market. Winners of this year’s 51st annual awards will be recognized in the September/October issue of R&D Magazine, and at the R&D 100 Awards Banquet on Nov. 7, 2014, in Orlando, FL.
The new Trilogy Q-Mode employs variable-speed technology to provide an extremely wide range of heating and cooling capacities, with the ability to perfectly match loads to as low as 30% of maximum. In addition, patent-pending Q-Mode technology produces year-round domestic hot water on demand, even when space conditioning is not required.
The Trilogy Q-Mode series is the outcome of a five-year collaboration between ClimateMaster and ORNL, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program. Based on field tests and analysis by ORNL, the Trilogy Q-Mode can save 55 to 65% of annual energy use and cost for space conditioning and water heating in residential applications versus new minimum efficiency (SEER 13) conventional systems, and 30 to 35% versus current state-of-the-art two-stage geothermal heat pumps.
In addition to efficiency, the Trilogy Q-Mode delivers a high level of comfort and humidity control by precisely matching its capacity to the heating and cooling load. For installing and servicing contractors, it also offers the latest technology to configure and diagnose the system electronically, using communicating controls and sensors that monitor every critical aspect of system operation to ensure peak performance.
“The Trilogy Q-Mode represents a major breakthrough in comfort and efficiency,” said John Bailey, senior vice president of sales at ClimateMaster. “With a variable speed fan, pump and compressor (Trilogy technology) plus four operating modes (Q-Mode technology), it far exceeds the capabilities of any other HVAC unit on the market today. Plus, it can completely eliminate the use of auxiliary heat, even in far Northern climates.”