Warmth pumps have been round for many years, however the expertise has been experiencing a transparent second within the solar lately, with world gross sales growing by double digits in each 2021 and 2022, in accordance with the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA). Warmth pumps have been featured on MIT Know-how Overview’s 2024 listing of 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences. 

Gross sales fell by practically 17% in 2023 within the US, one of many expertise’s largest markets, in accordance with new knowledge from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute. The slowdown comes after practically a decade of fixed progress. The AHRI knowledge isn’t complete, however the group contains producers accounting for about 90% of the items offered within the US yearly.

Nevertheless, the decline doubtless says much less about warmth pumps than it does about the entire HVAC sector, since gasoline furnaces and air conditioners noticed even steeper drops. Gasoline furnace gross sales declined much more than warmth pumps did in 2023, so warmth pumps really made up a barely bigger proportion of gross sales this yr than in 2022.

The broad slowdown displays broader client pessimism amid increased rates of interest and inflation, says Yannick Monschauer, an analyst on the IEA, through e-mail. 

“We now have additionally been observing slowing warmth pump gross sales in different components of the world for 2023,” Monschauer provides. In Europe, a rush to impress, pushed by the vitality disaster and rising pure gasoline costs, has slowed.