Hydronic heat pumps sales grow 32%
22nd July 2018
UK: Global sales of hydronic heat pumps grew 32% in 2017, reaching a value of €5.7bn.
The latest report from BSRIA reveals that the number of units sold worldwide also jumped 32% to over 4.5 million compared to 2016. Asia remains the largest world region in terms of heat pumps sales, driving 84% of the total sales volume.
The global market was pushed by a strong performance in China and Chinese heat pump suppliers are said to be “optimistic” about the future performance of the market and that it will continue to expand. There is also a positive attitude toward heat pumps overall in Europe even though the volume of sales is considerably lower than in China.
Sales claimed by heat pump suppliers amounted to €2.5bn in 2017, equivalent to a volume of three million units in China. The majority is split types but BSRIA notes that, while they have generally been used for domestic hot water, increasingly the Chinese used them for space heating too.
“This is largely motivated by health reasons as end-users prefer hydronic to air-based heating,” said Aline Breslauer, BSRIA’s senior market intelligence analyst. “In Beijing city only, 30,000 heat pumps for space heating were sold in 2017. The surge was related to the generous financial incentives allocated by the central and local governments but also because environmental concern has been growing in the country.”
In Europe, public awareness towards more environmental-friendly heating system has been on the rise too, says BSRIA, but the recovery of the new construction industry and rising oil prices are the major factors to which the 2017 rise can be attributed. The sales across Europe grew by 12% in volume terms in 2017 compared to a 6% increase a year earlier.
The air-water heat pump segments posted another year of significant rise, particularly monobloc and split system types; the sales volume grew 19% and 14% respectively. Under the EU Climate Policy for Carbon Emissions reduction, both unit types enjoyed sustained expansion, notably as a way to provide heating in new residential buildings.
The top three fastest growing monobloc markets were Spain, Czech Republic and UK, and Spain, the Netherlands and Poland for split units.
