‘The Spotify of heat pumps’: The Swedish company offering sustainable heating with no upfront costs

Heat pumps are gaining in popularity but one of the biggest concerns for potential buyers is whether they will recoup the hefty upfront costs.

Governments across Europe have introduced a range of subsidies and support schemes to encourage homeowners to switch their gas boiler for the low-carbon heating system. But despite growing climate concerns, take-up dropped for the first time in a decade in 2023, figures from the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) show.

The industry group warned in July that if the current trend continued, the heating contribution to the EU’s critical 2030 climate targets would be missed by about 25 per cent. It attributes the fall to some governments changing their financial support schemes, as well as the fall in gas prices relative to electricity. Where electricity is more expensive, heat pumps tend to sell less.  

So what are the options if you want to buy a heat pump in Europe?

Heat pump benefits – without the upfront costs

There’s no doubt low-carbon heating alternatives remain expensive: buying and installing an air source heat pump will set you back around £10,000 (€11,500), two to four times higher than gas boilers. 

However, Aira, a clean energy company founded in Stockholm in 2022, aims to make heat pumps accessible to European homeowners by offering the green heating technology on a subscription model. 

“One of our key missions is to make heat pumps accessible for people across Europe and we do this by offering affordable monthly payment plans,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lewerth, tells Euronews Green. 

The subscription model works by spreading the cost of the heat pump over monthly repayments. Aira says costs start at £5,490 (about €6,600).

If you live in England, Wales or Scotland you may also be able to get a government grant to help with costs. These are aimed at helping homeowners to convert their homes to fossil-fuel-free heating.

Where can you get a heat pump on subscription?

Aira is currently expanding across Germany, Italy and the UK, and says it aims to switch five million homes to heat pumps within the decade. 

It did not disclose how many heat pumps it has installed so far, only saying that it is “visiting thousands of homes” each month.

Research commissioned by Aira recently found that half of homeowners in these countries would consider installing a heat pump if they saw it as more affordable, underlining the financial barriers that remain to greening the grid.

Is my home right for a heat pump?

Heat pumps are suitable for any type of building, EHPA says, as long as the existing heating or cooling system is compatible. 

Agovernment-backed project in the UK found the technology to be effective in buildings from different periods, ranging from Victorian terraces to blocks of flats built in the 1960s.

While momentum has been growing around the technology in recent years, Lewerth stresses that “the technology is not new”. 

“Heat pumps have been heating homes across Scandinavia for decades and in Sweden, heat pump penetration is at 60 per cent with only one per cent of the country's carbon emissions coming from residential heating.” In contrast, just one per cent of homes in the UK have heat pumps, while the figure is three per cent in Germany and eight in Italy.  

Heat pump financial help widely available across Europe

Support to install a heat pump varies across Europe, with some countries offering grants worth up to €18,000, while some provide means-tested funding to tackle fuel poverty. As well as subsidies, EHPA is calling for action to limit the cost of electricity relative to gas.

“As long as clean heating is more expensive than fossil fuel heating, heat pump subsidies have to be continued with a long-term vision,” Jozefien Vanbecelaere, the Head of EU Affairs of the EHPA, previously told Euronews Green.