Investigating the efficiency of air-source heat pumps in the secondary school physics laboratory

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental method for investigating the coefficient of performance of air-source heat pumps for secondary age children and links this to ideas about energy efficiency. It was developed and trialled in a secondary school in the West Midlands of England in response to literature that reveals climate anxiety to be increasing amongst young people around the world and their resulting desire to take action. Links are made to the topic of energy efficiency in the current physics school curriculum in England which is used, where possible, to explain the results of the investigation with suggestions for where extensions might be made in future to facilitate a more complete understanding by pupils. Links to wider societal change in the decarbonisation of home heating in the UK as part of the national response to climate change are explored and an argument is made for the viability and necessity of including the technology of air-source heats pumps in the physics curriculum for all children.