Comparison of the exergetic, ecological and economic performances of a heat pump

The energy valorization coefficient of heat pumps is defined as the ratio of the sum of energy values produced to the sum of energy values used. The value is decided by an arbitrary scale chosen by the user. Coefficients derived from scales based on performance, exergy, global ecology, and national energy markets are presented. These show that a performance based evaluation of heat pumps is too simplistic, since subjective factors must be taken into account in economic analyses.