How can we explain this lack of interest in the heat pump? According to Christophe Leroy, the price differential between electricity, on the one hand, and oil and gas, on the other side, is too great.
Often the heat pump is not cost-effective
So, electricity currently costs around 30 cents per KWh. Gas and oil, for their part, only cost around 8 cents per KWh and are therefore almost four times cheaper than electricity.
Reduced consumption but high price
Remember that a heat pump consumes approximately three times less energy than a gas and oil boiler. This consumption reduced by three therefore does not compensate for the four times higher price of electricity, compared to those of gas and fuel oil. “Currently, it is not profitable to replace a fossil boiler with a heat pumpsupports Christophe Leroy. For the heat pump to cost less to use than the fossil boiler, electricity would have to be only 2.5 to 3 times more expensive than oil and gas”.
During the energy crisis, the price of gas increased more sharply than that of electricity. The heat pump therefore made it possible, at that time, to reduce energy bills. But this is no longer the case today. The boss of Viessmann specifies that, for certain homes equipped with very old boilers, it may still be interesting to switch to a heat pump. In fact, these very old boilers consume even more than condensing boilers.
gull“Europe has set itself the objective of reaching 30 million heat pumps by 2030. At the current rate, we will never get there.
Target 30 million pumps in Europe in 2030
Remember that the heat pump is considered one of the solutions for decarbonizing heating. “Europe has set itself the goal of reaching 30 million heat pumps by 2030declares Christophe Leroy. At the current rate, we will never get there. Taxation on electricity, gas and fuel oil would need to be adapted to achieve this”. Basically, according to the boss of Viessmann, excise duties on electricity should be lowered in order to reduce its cost. The question is whether or not this loss of budgetary revenue should be compensated by an increase in excise duties on fuel oil and gas.
But, according to Christophe Leroy, the Belgian political world risks not moving in this direction. “According to the contacts I have had, the political world is not going to tackle this problemhe declares. The switch to electric cars is already leading to a reduction in budgetary revenues, due to reduced road and registration taxes. The political world is therefore afraid of creating a new budget hole by lowering taxes on electricity”.
How will we produce our energy in 2030?
According to Christophe Leroy, Europe has worked on a maximum ratio of 2.5 between the cost of electricity and gas to boost heat pumps. But this legislation was postponed after the European elections. “Belgium will probably wait for the vote on this European legislation to modify its taxation”he specifies.
Note that Creg, the energy sector regulator, has also released a study which compares the costs of sustainable heating systems (including the heat pump) with the costs of fossil heating systems (gas and carbon boilers). fuel oil). This study not only compares operating costs, but also investment costs of different technologies. Indeed, we know that a heat pump can cost 12,000 to 15,000 euros, unlike a fossil boiler which costs a few thousand euros.
What are the results ? Creg calculated that electricity had to cost, at most, 2.06 times more expensive than gas and 2.58 times more expensive than oil for the investment in the heat pump to be profitable. However, electricity has often been 3.6 to 6 times more expensive than gas and oil.
