If you were thinking of installing a heat pump in your existing non-domestic building, where would you start? That deceptively simple question sits at the heart of IEA HPT Project 60, and it framed the project’s closing webinar on 18 June 2026. The hour-long online event drew an international audience, with over 56 participants joining live from a registration list of more than 120 people spanning over 25 countries across Europe, North America, Asia, and beyond.
The webinar marked the conclusion of Retrofitting Heat Pump Systems in Large Non-domestic Buildings, a project whose central deliverable is online, interactive guidance built specifically for first-time buyers. The aim is to help building owners and operators navigate the early decisions that so often make or break a retrofit, before they ever sit down with a supplier.
Setting the scene
Metkel Yebiyo of the Heat Pump Centre opened the session with a welcome and a short introduction to the IEA Heat Pumping Technologies TCP, the international framework for cooperation on heat pumping technologies that has operated within the IEA since 1978 and now brings together twenty member countries. He set Project 60 in the context of the programme’s wider portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment work, before handing over to the project team. (Download the full presentation here)
Lessons from Project 60
Roger Hitchin, UK Alternate Delegate, presented the project’s findings on behalf of the team, including co-author Peter Mallaburn. He began with why the sector matters and why it is hard. Non-domestic heating accounts for roughly a third of building heating energy in the UK, spread across some two million existing buildings. While most heating energy and carbon emissions come from a relatively small number of large buildings, the great majority of heating systems, and therefore of potential retrofits, sit in smaller buildings occupied by smaller enterprises, often with informal procurement routes for HVAC and little established contact with experienced suppliers. Reliable statistics on this fragmented market are scarce.
Project 60’s response is a web-based guidance tool aimed squarely at those first-time buyers. As Hitchin explained, the tool is intended as a first step, the initial homework that prepares a building owner for a productive first meeting with suppliers, rather than a substitute for professional design. It works in three moves: it asks basic questions to rule out infeasible options and to flag important missing information; it lists the systems that have not been ruled out, with short descriptions to support more detailed discussion; and it presents summaries of relevant real-world retrofits, offering reassurance that a prospective buyer is not stepping into the unknown.
Hitchin was candid about what the project could not resolve within its timescale. Information gaps remain around the actual costs and measured performance of installations, deep-dive operational data on specific systems, and detailed market information, some of which exists only behind paywalls. Work on the project finished at the end of 2025, volunteers have provided initial feedback, and the final report and guidance tool are being released. Longer term, the tool will be maintained by the Heat Pump Centre, the programme office of the HPT TCP, with future needs including wider dissemination, a greater variety of case studies from more countries, and versions tailored to specific regions or applications. (Download the full presentation here)
A Canadian perspective
Frédéric Genest of Natural Resources Canada offered a commentary that underlined exactly why country-specific context matters. Canada spans an extraordinary range of operating conditions, from the marine climate of Vancouver, with around 2,825 heating degree days, to the Arctic conditions of Yellowknife at over 8,000, with design temperatures falling below minus 40 degrees Celsius in the far north. Energy prices and carbon intensities vary just as widely between provinces, with electricity ranging from roughly 28 to 50 dollars per gigajoule and carbon content differing by orders of magnitude depending on the local grid. Genest walked through how climate, energy mix and costs, provincial regulations, heat pump performance rating standards, and ongoing research all shape retrofit decisions in the Canadian setting, reinforcing the project’s own conclusion that broader, more international case-study evidence is one of the most valuable directions for future development. (Download the full presentation here)
Try the tool
The session closed with a Q&A and an invitation to the audience to explore the guidance directly and help shape its next version. The tool is available here: https://heatpumpingtechnologies.org/project60/smart-guide-start/the-smart-guide/
As the developers note, this is version 1.0. It was developed within the HPT TCP Project 60, and its outputs have been verified by the project participants, though they do not necessarily represent the views of the HPT TCP or its individual member countries. Comments on the tool’s functionality or outputs, and offers to contribute further case studies, are welcome via the Heat Pump Centre, quoting “Project 60 System and Case Studies Smart Guide” in the subject line. Such input will be considered in a future revision.
Project documentation is available at https://heatpumpingtechnologies.org/project60/.