Heat pump: Average electricity consumption per day

A heat pump is characterised by rather low electricity consumption per day compared to other types of heating. Read here how much electricity the individual heat pump types consume on average

Heat pump: This is how the electricity consumption per day comes about

Heat pumps are considered energy-efficient systems for heating and hot water. After all, the heat pump draws the heating energy from the earth’s interior, the air or the groundwater – electricity is only required to operate the pump itself. The following applies here:

• The average electricity consumption of a heat pump depends first of all on the heat source. In general, ground-source heat pumps and water-source heat pumps consume less electricity than air-source heat pumps, which draw heat from the ambient air.
• In addition, other factors contribute to electricity consumption, in particular the area to be heated, the outside temperature and the insulation standard of the building. Individual heating behaviour also plays an important role, of course.
• To calculate your electricity consumption, you need two well-known factors: the annual heating output and the annual performance factor (APF) of the heat pump. The seasonal performance factor indicates how much heating energy your heat pump can generate from one kWh of electricity. The higher the coefficient of performance, the more efficient the pump.
• If your heating and hot water needs are met by the heat pump, you need separate values for an exact calculation. For example, the EEZ for heating can be between 0.2 and 0.5 higher than for hot water production, while the heating capacity is usually in a ratio of 2:1 (60 % heating, 40 % hot water).
• For the calculation, divide the annual heating output in each case by the AWC. For example, with a heating output of 10,000 kWh and an AWC of 4.0, the electricity consumption would be 2,500 kWh.

Electricity consumption for different household sizes

For the electricity consumption of your heat pump, the number of people in the household only plays a secondary role. More important is the area to be heated and the resulting total heat demand. This means:

• For a living space of 120 m², one usually assumes an annual heating requirement of 12,000 kWh. However, the year of construction, insulation standard and heating behaviour can strongly influence this value.
• Of this, 60 % (= 6,000 kWh) is used for heating, while 40 % (= 4,000 kWh) is used for hot water.
• For an air-source heat pump, the average EE for new buildings is around 2.6 for heating and hot water. This would result in an annual electricity consumption of approx. 4,615 kWh (12,000 kWh : 2.6) here.
• For the ground source heat pump, the average annual performance factor is 3.8, resulting in an electricity consumption of approximately 3,158 kWh per year.
• The water heat pump achieves the highest average annual performance factor of 4.5, which results in an annual electricity consumption of approximately 2,667 kWh.