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Heat pump for detached houses

Heat pump in a detached house: electricity consumption, performance & more

Whether in new or existing buildings – heat pumps are a pioneering technology for clean, efficient and cost-saving heating in single-family homes. They can be planned from the outset or retrofitted during renovation. With the right heat pump output, you can optimise your consumption and bring the energy revolution to your home.

To the air to water heat pumps from Hargassner

The right heat pump capacity for detached houses

Along with modern biomass heating systems, heat pumps have long been one of the most popular alternatives to old oil and gas boilers in Austria and Germany. As a result, heat pumps are now available on the market in a wide range of performance variants. The Airflow-M heat pump models from Hargassner, for example, cover a maximum outputs ranging from 5 kW to 20 kW.

So, the question is: what heat pump capacity do I need for my detached house? Only with the right sizing can you achieve the maximum efficiency from your new heating system. The key factor here is the heating load in kW, which should match the capacity of the heat pump for your detached house.

There is a simple formula to roughly estimate your individual heat load:

Living space in m² * specific heat requirement in kW/m² = heating load in kW

What is your heat demand?

The specific heat requirement of a building depends on many factors. This table gives approximate values for different building types:

Building Heat requirement
Passive house 0.015 kW/m2
New building with thermal insulation 0.06 kW/m2
Refurbished old building 0.08 kW/m2
Unrenovated old building 0.12 kW/m2

So if you want to install a heat pump in a detached house to passive house standards and with a living space of 140 m², a model with an output of 2.1 kW would be sufficient. For the same living space in an old building without thermal insulation, on the other hand, you would need an output of 16.8 kW.

Please note: This is an approximate calculation. You should always consult an expert when making your final choice of heat pump.

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Electricity consumption in a detached house with heat pump

Heat pumps are energy miracles that generate many times more energy than they consume. But of course you may wonder what electricity consumption you should expect in a detached house with a heat pump. First and foremost, this depends on your personal heating behaviour and the type of heat pump in question. The building insulation also plays an important role.

In order to calculate your own expected electricity consumption from the heat pump, you can use your total annual heat requirement and the seasonal performance factor or the SCOP value of the heat pump. The seasonal performance factor and the SCOP of a heat pump each indicate the ratio of energy supplied and energy generated.

Calculate the annual power consumption of a heat pump

Use the following formula to calculate the annual electricity consumption of your heat pump:

Heat requirement in kWh per year / SCOP = annual electricity consumption in kWh

So if you have a heat requirement of 10,000 kWh, for example, and your heating system has an SCOP of up to 4.76 – like the air to water heat pump from Hargassner – this results in an electricity consumption for your heat pump in a detached house of 2,100 kWh per year.

Tip: Many electricity providers offer special heat pump tariffs.

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