Key Facts on Heat Pumps

For each kW of electricity consumed by a heat pump, about 4kW of thermal energy is generated. This corresponds to a 300% efficiency.

Comparison with other heating technologies:

• Condensing gas/oil boiler: 90-96% efficiency
• Conventional gas/oil boiler: 70-80% efficiency
• Direct electric heating: 35-45% efficiency

About 75% of the energy that is used is renewable, whereas 25% of the energy is generated by other sources (in 99% this is electricity). If the electricity is generated by renewables (PV, wind, hydro), then the heat pump is 100% renewable and CO2-neutral.

They contribute to an annual reduction of 9,16 million tons CO2 emissions in the EU. According to IEA, heat pumps could save 50% of the building sector's CO2 emissions, and 5% of the industrial sector's. This means that 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 per year could be saved by heat pumps.

The vast majority of the heat pumps installed in Europe are also manufactured in Europe. In fact, the EU heat pump companies play a leadership role in the technology development. (EHPA)

They foster EU employment: 40 358 Europeans are full-time working in the heat pumps sector. This is a very moderate estimation based on the sales data in Europe, on which we applied a certain factor: man-hours needed to install the different types of heat pumps. (EHPA)

The EU imports annually energy worth over 400 billion euro. Heat pumps reduce the use of primary and final energy. So we would need less energy and by consequence less would need to be imported. This saves costs and secures the supply of energy at the same time: we become more energy independent.