A tough assessment of air heat pumps

Importing air heat pumps Scanoffice OyThe article published on the website of

“The air heat pump’s savings in heating are significant, especially in electrically heated single-family and terraced houses. An air source heat pump can save up to 50 percent of heating costs per year, which means that the device pays for itself in just a few years,” says Scanoffice’s website.

Scanoffice’s article contains an example calculation for a 120 square meter detached house with direct electric heating and an average electricity consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours per year.

“So it can be estimated that when the price of electricity including transfers is, for example, 18 cents per kilowatt hour, an air source heat pump can save up to 1,200 euros per year. An air source heat pump costs about 2,500 euros when installed,” says Scanoffice’s website.

Talouselämä asked the state company that promotes energy efficiency They motivate an expert Teemu Kettusen insight into whether the savings presented in Scanoffice’s article are possible.

Kettusen is not aware of any new studies on the matter, but according to him VTT concluded in his modeling done in 2016 that in an open-plan old building, almost 40 percent of the heating needs of the premises and ventilation could be saved with one good air source heat pump.

“In VTT’s modeling from 2016, it was estimated that with one so-called good air source heat pump, up to about 9,600 kilowatt-hours could be saved in purchased energy in an old open-plan building with a heating need for rooms and ventilation of about 25,000 kilowatt-hours,” says Kettunen.

At an electricity price of 18 cents/kWh, this would mean an annual saving of up to 1,700 euros. Kettunen reminds that an energy-hungry old detached house heated by electric radiators is a very suitable target for the use of an air source heat pump.

“On this basis, I would not consider the example presented on Scanoffice’s website to be impossible at all. Here, of course, it must be noted that the savings vary a lot depending, among other things, on the purchase energy consumption of space heating and how spacious the house’s floor structure is and how the heat produced by the air source heat pump can spread into the apartment.”

You can get a pump for a few tons

The prices of air source heat pumps when installed are typically in the range of 2,000–3,000 euros.

According to Kettusen, the electricity price used in Scanoffice’s calculation, which is 18 cents/kWh with transfers, can be considered quite expensive at the moment.

“The total price of electricity naturally varies depending on the type of electricity contract and which grid company you happen to live in.”

According to Kettusen, new fixed-term electricity contracts can be obtained at a price of 8–9 cents/kWh, on top of which the electricity network service fee and electricity tax will be added.

With an electricity contract price of 8 cents/kWh, the total price of electricity Caruna’s in the area, according to Kettusen, the total would be around 16 cents/kWh, which includes value added tax.

In Statistics Finland’s latest publication, the total price of electricity for a household customer with an annual consumption of 15,000 kWh was about 15 cents/kWh.