The environmental impact of heat pumps

There are many reasons to choose a heat pump. That’s why Daikin has created the whitepaper Drivers to Heat Pump Adoption by European Households, offering fact-based insights to help consumers make an informed decision. It explores key factors such as energy cost savings, government incentives, environmental impact, policy developments, and how heat pumps integrate with renewable energy solutions to future-proof homes.

In this article, we’ll focus on the environmental benefits of heat pumps, including reduced carbon emissions and improved energy efficiency.

Heat pumps: key to EU decarbonisation and heating transition

Heat pumps are one of the key solutions for reaching EU decarbonisation goals. Our case study shows that a Daikin heat pump is 2-24 times less carbon intensive, helping to save from 0.2 to 2 tons of CO2-eq during the use phase every year (depending on the emission factor - EF - of each country’s electricity grid).

A decarbonised EU by 2050 is the main objective of the EU Green Deal, a comprehensive plan to combat climate change. The EU targets a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors, including energy and buildings. Buildings are the largest energy consumers, accounting for 40% of the EU's total energy consumption and 36% of its greenhouse gas emissions. In residential buildings, around 80% of final energy consumption is used for space and water heating, much of which still relies on fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil. Decarbonising heating in buildings is therefore crucial to meet the EU’s climate goals.

The role of heat pumps in decarbonisation

Heat pumps are vital for the EU’s decarbonisation, offering a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly heating solution compared to traditional fossil fuel-based systems. The European Heat Pump Market and Statistics Report 2023 highlights that the heat pump stock in 2022 alone contributed to a reduction of 52.52 Mt of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, adopting heat pumps instead of fossil-fuel boilers and furnaces could reduce annual CO₂ emissions by 3 gigatons

Support for EU regulations

Heat pumps are key to the EU’s clean energy transition and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. According to a 2022 report from the International Energy Agency, heat pumps could reduce Europe’s gas demand for building heating by at least 21 billion cubic metres by 2030. The EU Heat Pump Action Plan aims to install at least 10 million additional heat pumps by 2027, supported by various EU policy initiatives like the Renovation Wave Strategy, Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of heat pumps

To understand the carbon footprint benefits of heat pumps compared to gas-powered heating technologies, it is essential to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA). An LCA evaluates a product’s full life cycle—from resource extraction to production, use, recycling, and disposal—providing a comprehensive view of its environmental impact.

Since 2021, Daikin has conducted LCAs for heat pump products, assessing their environmental impacts from manufacturing to disposal. Daikin's LCA is verified by an independent third party and presented as an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which offers an independently verified summary of a product's environmental impact throughout its life cycle. There are two main types of EPDs: industry-wide and product-specific. EPDs are increasingly mandated by national regulations.

Case study: carbon footprint of Daikin heat pumps vs. gas boilers

This case study compares the Daikin Altherma 3 R 180L (an air-to-water heat pump) with a highly efficient gas boiler (90% efficiency).

Whole Life Carbon

Whole life carbon (WLC) refers to the total carbon footprint of a product throughout its existence, encompassing both operational and embodied carbon. The total global warming potential (GWP) of a Daikin heat pump is nearly eight times lower than that of a gas boiler.

Operational Carbon

Operational carbon emissions are those associated with the ongoing use of a product (the use phase). In this study, operational emissions from the gas boiler are almost ten times higher than those from the heat pump. The energy usage was calculated for France.

Embodied Carbon

Embodied carbon refers to the emissions produced during the extraction, manufacturing, transportation, construction, maintenance, repair, and end-of-life stages of a product or building. The Daikin heat pump has a higher embodied carbon compared to the gas boiler, primarily due to higher emissions during the manufacturing and end-of-life stages.

Heat pumps result in significantly lower CO₂ emissions

Replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump can result in significant CO₂ emission reductions in typical single-family homes across European countries. The carbon footprint variations of the heat pump during its use phase were measured in different countries for a typical medium-sized household of 10.000 kWh annual energy consumption - representative of the new build market, with the following results:

• France: With the lowest electricity grid emissions factor (0.041 kg/kWh), a Daikin heat pump saves 2,107 kg of CO₂ annually, making it 24 times less carbon-intensive during the use phase compared to a gas boiler.
• UK: A Daikin heat pump saves 1,695 kg of CO₂ annually and is four times more carbon-efficient than a gas boiler.
• Italy: A Daikin heat pump saves 1,503 kg of CO₂ annually and is three times more carbon-efficient than a gas boiler.
• Spain: A Daikin heat pump saves 1,852 kg of CO₂ annually and is six times more carbon-efficient than a gas boiler.
• Netherlands: A Daikin heat pump saves 1,358 kg of CO₂ annually and is three times more carbon-efficient than a gas boiler.
• Belgium: A Daikin heat pump saves 1,921 kg of CO₂ annually and is eight times more carbon-efficient than a gas boiler.
• Germany: A Daikin heat pump saves 1,240 kg of CO₂ annually and is 2.3 times more carbon-efficient than a gas boiler.
• Poland: Despite having the highest electricity grid emissions factor (0.7766 kg/kWh), the yearly carbon footprint of a heat pump is 11% lower than that of a gas boiler, saving 226 kg of CO₂ annually. This marks significant progress in Poland's heating sector decarbonisation, which will further improve as the country transitions from coal-generated electricity to less carbon-intensive alternatives.

Yearly emissions from the use of heat pumps are 2-24 times lower than emissions from gas boiler providing the same air and water heating and cooling for the household in all the countries studied. Since the EF of electricity is only expected to decrease within the near and long-term future due to the investments in renewable energy by the EU and UK, heat pumps will also continue to have less use phase emissions, therefore, helping them to achieve their climate goals.

In conclusion, heat pumps are a ready-to-use climate-positive solution with far-reaching environmental benefits compared to traditional gas boilers.

For detailed data, sources, and references, please refer to the full whitepaper (available for download in English).