Heat pump systems and their costs from the perspective of insurance companies, users and environment

Abstract: This report is based on a project which aims to evaluate the costs for the heat pump system from the perspective of Swedish insurance companies, users and environment. There are different thoughts today about the costs for the heat pump systems and the goal with this project is to analyze the costs for the heat pump and the cost for electric heating. The method of the project could mainly be divided into two parts. The first part will calculate the cost of faults divided with the market value for the heat pump system. The second part will use life cycle cost analysis, LCCA, to compare the heat pump system with the electric boiler. Data used in the calculations in the method is collected from insurance companies and by interviewing experts in the subject. The result from the study using LCCA proves that the heat pump system in relation to the electric boiler is more profitable from the perspectives of users and environment. The reason behind this is the amount electricity used during the whole lifetime of both systems. At least three times less electricity is demanded from the heat pump system and the user will therefore save money if choosing the heat pump. In the same way the environment gets less affected by the smaller amount of demanded electricity. However, from the insurance companies’ perspective, the electric boiler is to be preferred, due to high fault costs for the heat pump compared to the electric boiler. For example, the brine to water heat pump has a cost of faults at 3100 kr per year, comparing to the electric boiler which has almost no cost of faults at all. The discussion made will present potential reasons and thoughts regarding the outcome of the study. It also includes an analysis where alternative models are discussed and tested from different approaches.