31 August 2021
Paper No 352 – Diffusion barriers and strategies for heat pump systems with integrated storage and photovoltaic in Austrian 1-2 family dwellings: an explorative investigation for the IEA HPT Annex 55/ECES annex 34 – 13th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Jeju,
The Austrian building sector accounts for 16 percent of national CO2 emissions. This makes it a key sector to
decarbonize if long-term environmental targets are to be met. Relevant measures focus on the thermalrefurbishment
of existing buildings and the phaseout of fossil-based technologies. The task specified by the
Austrian government, involves replacing 600.000 oil heaters currently in use against renewable alternatives by
2035. This is the point of departure of this study. We investigate key barriers and solutions for the switch from
fossil-based systems to comfort & climate boxes (CCBs) in the Austrian 1-2 family housing segment. CCBs
are integrated systems encompassing a heat pump, storage and integrated control. The study applies a two-step
approach: First, 11 problem-centered stakeholder interviews are conducted and evaluated using quantitative
content analysis. Next, a stakeholder survey is conducted to assess the subjective relevance of barriers
identified in the interviews. Results yield 45 barriers clustered into 6 categories. We identify discrepancies in
the relevance-perceptions between stakeholder groups, especially between researchers and key market actors.
We advise realigning research agendas along market actors’ perceptions, as these actors possess closeup
insights about the market environment for CCBs.