Regional report Europe: “heat pumps — status and trends”

By 1997 about 90 million heat pumps have been installed worldwide, only less than 5% are located in Europe, historically the cradle of this “thermodynamic heating and cooling process”. The majority of the approximately 4 million installed heat pumps are imported reversible air-to-air systems in southern Europe and only 30% represent the typical European-made heating only electric driven compression systems for space and water heating in buildings in central and northern Europe. The first and second oil crises has been the main cause for a first European heat pump “boom” at the end of the seventies. Consequently the following drop in energy prices negatively influenced the market in some countries. The new renaissance in Europe in the middle of the nineties was initiated by the understanding of sustainable development for a more efficient energy use and the related protection of the environment.