The energy performance of dwellings with heat pumps of Dutch non-profit housing associations

Abstract

Achieving energy efficiency in the built environment requires extensive efforts in the renovation and adaptation of housing stock. A promising design solution is the heat pump. While gas boiler systems are commonly used in Dutch non-profit housing stock, the share of dwellings with a heat pump grew from 1.6% in 2017 to 3.2% in 2021. However, building characteristics and the energy consumption of dwellings with a heat pump are unclear. Therefore, a dataset of 69,422 dwellings with different types of heat pumps has been examined and compared to dwellings with a traditional HR107 condensing gas boiler. This research reports average characteristics and the average actual energy consumption of dwellings with all-electric, hybrid and gas absorption heat pump systems. Dwellings with a heat pump system are on average of higher building quality, their gas consumption is lower and their electricity consumption is higher than dwellings with an HR107 condensing gas boiler. Detailed insight is provided for dwellings with different heat pump systems and for dwellings with different building characteristics. Further research to determine the energy performance of dwellings with specific heat pump configurations is recommended in light of the energy transition in the built environment.