75%
LESS
POWER
CONSUMED*
Better comfort. Less than one quarter of the consumption.
*677 kWh → 156 kWh over the full monitored period - a 77% reduction (SWA report, p. 5).
An independent, side-by-side winter field test.
Steven Winter Associates measured an Innova cold-climate PTHP against an advanced competing cold-climate PTHP - in matched apartments, under identical conditions, on SWA's own meters.
Both units are AHRI-certified. This report is about what certification alone cannot show - see the notice below.
Both units in this study are AHRI-certified cold-climate heat pumps, and nothing in this report suggests otherwise. To protect the manufacturer of the competing PTHP, all identifying information has been removed. This report was in no way, shape, or form designed to denigrate the competing unit, to make it look bad, or to imply that it fails to meet the performance specifications it declares and AHRI certifies. It is a modern, capable, properly certified machine - and this test gives no reason to doubt its certified ratings.
The purpose of this report is different. First, to show how much more efficiently the Innova system operates in real-world conditions - at a fraction of the competing PTHP's size, coil size, fan size, airflow, and outside exposure. Second, to make a broader point: an AHRI rating certifies a unit's efficiency at standardized test conditions, but a rating alone does not tell the whole story. The whole story is told by boots-on-the-ground field testing, where inverter logic, control strategy, and modulation behavior can create a massive difference between two certified systems whose paper metrics look comparable. Two units can carry similar certified ratings - and perform completely differently in the field.
Why the test was run - and how.
Why the test was run
A New York property developer, evaluating replacements for the packaged terminal units across its portfolio, wanted independent verification of Innova's published efficiency data before committing. It engaged Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA) - a leading U.S. building-science consultancy founded in 1972, with deep expertise in multifamily housing and heat-pump retrofits - to run a side-by-side field test against an advanced competing cold-climate PTHP.
SWA designed the testing plan, installed its own metering and temperature-logging equipment, and performed the analysis. Neither manufacturer controlled the measurements.
REPORT PP. 1-2, 26How it was run
Both inverter-based cold-climate units were installed in matched, vacant, north-facing studio apartments of identical size in the same building, set identically - 75°F setpoint, high fan - and metered through the coldest weeks of winter.
The competing unit was the rival manufacturer's newest cold-climate model, installed and serviced by its own technicians during the study. The Innova's supplemental electric heater was disabled throughout - every Innova figure in this report is the heat pump alone.
REPORT PP. 1-3, 28Certified on paper. Proven in the field.
A rating sheet measures a unit at fixed laboratory conditions. A winter in a real apartment measures everything else.
AHRI certification answers one question: does the unit deliver the efficiency it declares, under standardized test conditions? Both units in this study do. What certification is not designed to capture is how a unit behaves across a real winter - how its inverter logic responds to a changing load, how deeply it can modulate, how often it cycles, and what all of that does to the meter.
That is where the gap opened. Two certified cold-climate machines, side by side, holding the same temperature in identical apartments - and a difference on paper measured in percentage points became a difference in the field measured in multiples. Ratings are the floor of the story. Field performance is the whole story.
Inverter logic, control strategy and modulation - factors no single-point rating can show.
Read the Full SWA Report
Modulation - and the technology behind it - is the difference.
The result reflects both hardware and controls. The Innova pairs top-notch, advanced components - top-of-the-line fans and compressors - with its patented, highly efficient control algorithm and other patented technologies. It modulates consistently and linearly across a wide spectrum - a 3.7:1 turndown range - matching the actual load of the space and continuing to deliver warm air at reduced power between compressor cycles.
The competing unit modulates over a narrower 1.7:1 turndown, in broader, less linear steps whose minimum output exceeded the space's mild-weather load - cycling between high and low output at nearly double the peak power. Fine, linear modulation holds the room at a steady, consistent temperature, while broader modulation lets it swing up and down with each cycle. Report pp. 8, 10, 13
Lower input power at every room temperature
Across the entire observed range, the Innova drew less power than the competing unit to hold any given room temperature - not just on average, but at every point on the curve.
Standard-size efficiency
The competing model is designed for nonstandard sleeves - a category the NYC Energy Code permits to meet lower efficiency requirements than standard-size PTHPs. The Innova clears the higher bar.
Better in every dimension measured.
Consistent room temperature
Rather than the temperature fluctuating as the unit modulates in broad steps, the Innova's consistent, linear modulation across a wide spectrum held the room at a steady, even temperature throughout the monitored period - comfort that stays put, not comfort that oscillates around the setpoint.
Smaller physical footprint
The competing unit is a full-size PTHP with a substantially larger cabinet, a larger coil, a larger fan, greater airflow, and a substantially larger exterior grille. The Innova delivered its result at a fraction of that size - needing only two compact 8″ round wall penetrations.
Lower peak electrical demand
At roughly half the peak draw per unit, the Innova reduces building peak demand - directly relevant to electrification planning, electrical sizing, and demand charges.
Large sleeve + larger exterior grille
Two compact 8″ wall holes
Publication & Redaction Note
This summary and the accompanying report are shared only now, and in redacted form, at the developer's request: nothing capable of identifying the competing manufacturer or its product could be published - both to protect the competing company and to protect everyone who was involved in this test. All identifying information for the competing unit (brand, model numbers, imagery, related references) has been removed. This document is not a criticism of the competing product, a modern, capable, AHRI-certified cold-climate unit; its purpose is to present, accurately and diligently, how the Innova performed relative to a representative, advanced competing PTHP under identical, independently monitored conditions.