According to a new study, heat pumps are not suitable for around 10 million German residential buildings. Although they could be installed there, they would then work much more inefficiently than existing solutions. The installation would only be worthwhile in half of all German houses.

Study: Heat pumps unsuitable for many houses

According to the Economics Ministry, gas and oil heating systems are to be replaced by heat pumps in the next few years. The federal government has set a target of 6 million heat pumps by 2030. One new study on the topic points to a problemwhich seems to have received little attention so far.

According to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Research Institute for Thermal Insulation Munich installing a heat pump often makes no sense. In around 10 million German residential buildings, they would work much more inefficiently than is the case with existing solutions. Only half of the houses in Germany are suitable for heat pumps (source: n-tv).

Of all things Poor insulation stands in the way of efficiently working heat pumps, says study leader Andreas Holm. The average energy costs in a single-family house in energy efficiency class A+ can be noticeably reduced using heat pumps, but the opposite effect can be seen in houses in energy class H, for example. This is due to the low flow temperatures, which are a prerequisite for efficiently working heat pumps.

Electricity can also be generated on the balcony, as our video shows:

Heat pumps: High costs with “carefree installation”

Holm rejects the widespread use and “carefree installation” of heat pumps. These would not only entail high running costs, but also overload the power grids. Most recently, the Federal Network Agency had warned of a possible overload of the German power grids.

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