Heat Pumps

Heat pump technology is not new; the first model was built in the 1830s¹. With advances in design, heat pumps have become a super-efficient, planet-friendly way to both heat and cool buildings. This dual functionality provides consistent indoor temperatures throughout the year, enhancing comfort, convenience, and productivity.

How do heat pumps work?

Heat pump functionality varies somewhat from model to model, largely depending on the size of the space being heated or cooled and the level of temperature adjustment needed.

The core functionality remains the same across all heat pumps, however. In cold seasons, these appliances draw in heat energy from a building’s exterior (either from the surrounding air or from geothermal energy in the ground). Chemicals known as refrigerants are used to extract this heat, which is then transferred indoors through radiators, ductwork, or under-floor heating.

In warm seasons, heat pumps use the same process to extract heat from indoor air and send it outdoors, following the exact same steps as a standard air conditioner. (That’s because air conditioners are technically a type of heat pump. In fact, in some parts of the world, “air conditioning” refers to both heating and cooling.)

To understand the benefits of heat pumps, it’s important to understand how they differ from other heating technologies. Devices like wall heaters, baseboard heaters, and portable space heaters rely on electric resistance technology, which works by making a conducting material like copper or rubber oppose the flow of electrical current. When the current encounters this resistance, some electrical energy is converted into heat.

Other heating devices, such as boilers, burn fossil fuels like natural gas or oil to generate heat. For gas and oil boilers, the fuel is fed into a combustion chamber, where an electric spark ignites the fuel; once it’s burning, hot gases are channeled through a heat exchanger, which transfers heat to air or water circulating in a separate system.

In contrast to these technologies, heat pumps transfer heat rather than creating it, which is much less energy -intensive. Some heat pumps can reach up to 300% or 400% efficiency²—or, in other words, can deliver up to three or four times the heat energy to a building per unit of energy consumed. This easily tops the performance of electric resistance heaters, which can achieve only around 100% efficiency, or gas systems, which top out between 80% and 99% efficiency.

Increasing awareness, trust, and deployment of energy-efficient heat pumps will cool and warm buildings like homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals while using less energy, generating fewer climate emissions, and potentially lowering energy bills for some users.

Efficient heat pump technology already exists; it just needs to be deployed across the world.

Governments

• Develop, promote, and incentivize the production, import, and national adoption of energy-efficient heat pumps and those that use refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP).
• Invest in and increase access to renewable energy options for homes and business to power heat pumps sustainably.
• Set policies to phase out the production, trade, and sale of inefficient space heating and cooling systems.
• Use labels to indicate and promote the most efficient models.
• Ensure that building standards and codes provide efficient heat pumps as the default.
• Reduce the need for mechanical heating and cooling by ensuring building standards and codes require high-performance buildings as the default.

Heat pump manufacturers

• Invest in research and development to improve the efficiency, affordability, and climate-friendliness of heat pumps to match global best practice.

Consumers and consumer groups

• Choose the most efficient heat pump optimized for your local weather conditions to lower your energy bills and reduce your carbon emissions.
• Help increase awareness of the cost and environmental benefits of efficient heat pumps for heating and cooling spaces.
• Contact government representatives to request ambitious efficiency policies for all appliances.
• Increase the insulation and layers of glazing on your homes and businesses to help manage temperature fluctuations and reduce the need for space cooling and heating.