02 December 2022

Final Report Annex 50: Heat Pumps in Multi-Family Buildings for Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water


The present report documents the results of Annex 50 “Heat Pumps in Multi-Family Buildings for Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water”. The work started officially in 2017 and was planned for 4 years. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, combined with a longer absence of the operating agent in the initial year, the
Annex has been extended until June 2021. The active Annex group consisted of seven countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Switzerland).

The focus of the Annex 50 was on solutions for multifamily residential buildings, with the attempt to identify barriers for heat pumps in this field and how to overcome them. Upon the demand of the participating countries, new buildings and retrofit have been considered, together with buildings with a
higher specific heating demand.

The working group has succeeded in elaborating a general classification of heat pumps solutions for multifamily residential buildings. They have been described in a standardized way according to eight
representative categories. Overall, 13 solutions have been identified, ranging from a fully centralized system to a completely decentralized system (each-room solution). The solutions have been grouped
into five “families”, each grouping specific sub-solutions.

Parallel to the theoretical classification of the solutions, numerous case studies representing implementation of heat pumps in multifamily buildings have been collected. The cases show a wide variety of possibilities for use of heat pumps, depending on the energetical standard of the building, its
number of apartments, heat source and further characteristics. To reflect the holistic approach and to illustrate the practice, each case study is connected to a corresponding theoretical solution.

A multifunctional website has been designed and expended during the duration of the Annex, with the aim to disseminate its outcomes in an attractive and user-friendly way.

It is intended to continue the presented work, interalia through extending the case studies database within the frame of the new Annex “Heat pumps for multifamily residential buildings in cities”.