Last edited 08 Dec 2025

SEasonal PErformance factor and MOnitoring SEPEMO

SEPEMO diagram SPF 1000.jpg

The UCL Energy Futures Lab Briefing Paper "Accelerating the transition to heat pumps: measuring real-world performance and enabling peer-to-peer learning" by Dr Richard Carmichael published September 2022 describes SEPEMO Seasonal Performance factor and monitoring for heat pump systems in the building sector, as a project funded by Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) Programme financed by the European Commission, Contract No. IEE/08/776/SI2.529222, which defined four Seasonal performance factors (SPFs) 1-4 according to the boundaries of the system they are concerned with, which are explained by the above image and commentary below:

"SPFH1 This system contains only the heat pump unit. SPFH1 evaluates the performance of the refrigeration cycle. The system boundaries are similar to the COP defined in EN 14511, except that the standard takes, in addition, a small part of the pump consumption to overcome head losses in the liquid heat exchangers, and most part of the fan electricity consumption."

"SPFH2 This system contains the heat pump unit and the equipment to make the source energy available for the heat pump. SPFH2 evaluates the performance of the heat pump including heat source. This figure corresponds roughly to the SCOPNET, as defined in prEN 14825, excluding most of the heat source consumption."

"SPFH3 This system contains the heat pump unit, the equipment to make the source energy available and the back-up heater. SPFH3 represents the heat pump system and thereby it can be used for comparison to conventional heating systems (e.g. oil, gas, etc.). This system boundary is similar to the SPF in VDI 4650-1, EN 15316-4-2 and the SCOPON in prEN 14825, excluding most of the heat source consumption for most cases. For monovalent4 heat pump systems SPFH3 and SPFH2 are identical."

"SPFH4 This system contains the heat pump unit, the equipment to make the source energy available, the back-up heater and all auxiliary drives, including the auxiliary consumption of the heat sink system. SPFH4 represents the heat pump heating system including all auxiliary drives which are installed in the heating system."

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