Interconnected heat pumps in Austria: A technology implementation survey

Heat pumps become increasingly connected devices enabled to participate in the Internet of Things (IoT). Such heat pumps, both in domestic and industrial applications, allow for operation optimization to reduce energy consumption, to reduce the carbon footprint, to realize economic benefits or to increase comfort. They also enable grid services, which is of increasing importance due to the rising share of renewable energy. This contribution presents results of a survey among companies of the Austrian heat pump industry which was conducted to gather and evaluate the general sentiment on the relevance of interconnected heat pumps, state-of-the-art use cases, market availability and selected technology trends. The collected feedback clearly indicates significant progress in technology implementation. All participating companies offer both, IoT products (e.g. heat pumps with connectivity or intelligent components such as compressors or sensors), and related services (e.g. marketing of flexibility, remote service, monitoring, etc.). While two thirds of these products are already available either in the product portfolio of the companies, or in a large number in use, another third is currently under evaluation, under development or in a pilot phase. IoT technology is expected to bring significant changes in product development, business models and maintenance. For IoT enabled heat pumps this means that instead of being an autonomous smart component, they will be increasingly integrated and will be part of connected energy systems in the future.