What is Coefficient of Performance?
Coefficient of Performance (COP) is the efficiency ratio of the amount of heating or cooling provided by a heating or cooling unit to the energy consumed by the system. The higher the Coefficient of Performance the more efficient the system. Electrical heating for example has a Coefficient of Performance of 1.0.
What does that mean?
So, if a heating element is giving 2.5kw of heating it is also using 2.5kw of power. If an air conditioner has a rating of 2.5kw, giving you 2.5kw of cooling, it is only using 0.52kw to achieve that. Then the COP of that air conditioner would be 2.5 divided by 0.525 = 4.7, essentially almost 5 times more efficient than electrical heating.
As a general rule: the higher an air conditioner’s COP, the more efficient it is.
The diagram below shows you where to find the EER/COP rating. Almost all brochures have a spec sheet printed inside.
