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COPELAND SCROLL COMPRESSORS
Case Study
page 1 of 2Getting Better Over Time – 15-Year-Old
Copeland Scroll Compressor Is More EfficientThan The Day It Was Installed.
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Consider It Solved Summary• WaterFurnace started field-testing the Copeland Scroll compressor
in its geothermal residential HVAC units in 1989.
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• Carl Huber, Vice President Of Engineering And Quality, installeda Copeland Scroll compressor inside the prototype geothermal
system at his own home.
• For 15 years the Copeland Scroll compressor performed well,providing trouble-free, efficient operation.
• When Huber replaced the system in 2004, it was still operating
efficiently and he sent the Copeland Scroll compressor for testing.
• After more than a decade and a half of service, the Copeland
Scroll compressor was more efficient than the day it was installed,
by between one and two percent.

Customer
WaterFurnace International is a leading developer and manufacturer ofgeothermal heating and cooling systems, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
A pioneer in geothermal HVAC technology, the company prides itself
on having some of the most energy-efficient products in the industry.

Opportunity
In 1989, the company sought to test new compressor technologies
in its prototype geothermal heating and cooling systems. Scroll
compressors were relatively new to the North American HVAC
marketplace, and WaterFurnace Vice President of Engineering andQuality, Carl Huber, wanted to see if Copeland Scroll compressors,which were already making waves in the market, would help hiscompany optimize its products.

“WaterFurnace has built a verystrong reputation for quality,
and a big part of that has been
Copeland Scroll compressors.
That reputation has been amajor driver for our business;
if we have happy homeowners,
they tell their friends, and wecan sell more units.”®

– Carl Huber, Vice President of Engineeringand Quality for WaterFurnace

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COPELAND SCROLL COMPRESSORS
Case Study
page 2 of 2

The StoryHuber offered his own 3,300 square foot home as the firstsite for testing Copeland Scroll compressors, in his 2.5-ton
WaterFurnace geothermal system. This presented someunique challenges, as his home featured unusual structuralfeatures, such as 13-inch-thick double-stud walls and an
atypically large amount of insulation. For a structure likeHuber’s home, both efficiency and reliability were vital in
the HVAC system and, therefore, the compressor. Huber andhis family’s comfort were at stake, but he knew that if theCopeland Scroll compressor did the job in his home, it could
handle more standard residential buildings.
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“Having the prototype in my home, reliability was easy
to gauge,” Huber said. “In 15 years the only maintenanceneeded was a replacement blower motor and a changeof filter, neither of which had anything to do with thecompressor.”

When the time finally came to replace his entire residentialunit, Huber contacted Emerson Climate Technologies
about the 15-year-old compressor, and the company
immediately expressed interest in testing it. They foundthat the Copeland Scroll compressor had actually increasedin efficiency, by between one and two percent, after 15
years of continuous use.
Looking back now, though, Huber isn’t so surprised by thetesting results.
“We at WaterFurnace pride ourselves on having the mostefficient products on the market,” Huber said. “So we needcomponents that allow our units to reach the highest levelsof efficiency. We found that the Copeland Scroll compressor
just outperformed other compressors.”

Testing Results of 15-year-old Copeland Scroll Compressor

Emerson, Copeland Scroll and Emerson Climate Technologies are trademarks of Emerson Electric Co. or one of its affiliatedcompanies. Form No. 2007ECT-126 Issued 08/07 ®2007 Emerson Electric Co. All rights reserved. Printed in USA