Akustik-Blog

On October 23rd to 24th, 2024, the participants of the IEA HPT Annex 63 project met in Aachen for their first in-person meeting, hosted by RWTH Aachen University and HEAD Acoustics GmbH. Annex 63 is part of the International Energy Agency’s Heat Pumping Technologies initiative, focusing on the Placement Impact on Heat Pump Acoustics. The Annex 63 includes groups for five task areas: Building Acoustics Impact of Heat Pumps, Urban Acoustics Impact of Heat Pumps, Psychoacoustics of Heat Pumps, Digitally Assisted Heat Pump Placement, and Dissemination. During this fourth working meeting, all task groups presented their current status and opened up for discussions.

Our Institute is mainly involved in the third workgroup (Psychoacoustics of Heat Pumps), where the contents are closely linked to our research project LowNoise, in which the acoustic emissions of air-to-water heat pumps are investigated.

Besides the lively exchanges, the project members also got the chance to see the laboratory at HEAD Acoustics GmbH, as well as at the Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate and the Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics of the RWTH Aachen University. Thanks to everyone involved for their contributions, and a special thanks to Christoph Reichl from the Austrian Institute of Technology for organizing this interesting initiative, aiming to improve the noise impact of environment-friendly technologies such as heat pumps.