Better consumer protection, greater industry accountability and improving workforce skills have emerged as key focus areas under a plan to increase the penetration of heat pump hot water systems across Australia.

The Energy Efficiency Council has released the Roadmap for Heat Pump Hot Water Systems in Australia.

Supported by the New South Wales and Victorian Governments, the strategy has been developed in consultation with a steering group of 29 industry leaders.

It outlines seventeen long-term actions which are needed from industry and government to support the scaling up of high-quality heat pump hot water systems (HWHPS) across Australia in a safe and environmentally responsible way.

The actions focus on:

• Building consumer confidence though provision of information, advertising standards, effective warranties and technologies to enable control of the time of heat pump use.
• Improving industry accountability through audits of installations, greater regulatory oversight and publication of de-identified audit data including for specific products.
• Improving workforce skills through development of a new training course for HPHWS installation, incorporating HPHWS training into plumbing apprenticeships and requiring completion of the aforementioned training as a condition of participation in government incentive programs.
• Helping industry to expand the range of offerings which are available to consumers at affordable prices through requiring appropriate consumer co-payments when accessing government incentives, government funding for vulnerable or low-income households, creation of a HPHWS roadmap for commercial and residential strata buildings and business support for the HPHWS industry.
• Creating a sustainable industry through a national approach to the stewardship of hot water systems including HPHWS at end of life and a national approach to determination of sound levels for HPHWS.

Essentially speaking, heat pump water heater systems use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly.

To do this, the heat pump works like a refrigerator in reverse.

Whereas a refrigerator pulls heat from inside a box and sends it out to the surrounding room, heat pump hot water systems pull heat from the surrounding air and transfer it – at a higher temperature – to heat water in a storage tank.

As a result of their ability to move heat around rather than generating heat directly, heat pumps can be up to 70 percent more energy efficient compared with traditional electric hot water systems, according to Energy Australia.

However, heat pumps do have drawbacks.

These include higher up-front purchase and installation costs (absent of government programs), generation of low-level noise, requirements for ventilated space and reduced effectiveness in colder climates.

According to the roadmap, the potential role and importance of HPHWS should not be underestimated.

All up, domestic hot water use accounts for around one-fifth of Australian residential greenhouse gas emissions and one quarter of residential energy use.

Compared to the current trajectory, rapid electrification could reduce emissions related to domestic hot water use by around 80 percent.

With the greater energy efficiency of heat pumps compared with other electric hot water systems, heat pumps offer an opportunity to deliver faster and more significant reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The roadmap comes amid a dramatic scaling up in heat pump installations which is occurring in response to NSW and Victorian Government incentives.

According to industry estimates, the number of hot water heat pump installations which have occurred throughout Australia has increased more than fourfold from around 20,000 in 2019 to around 117,000 in 2022.

Even if only modest levels of growth are achieved, the roadmap estimates that heat pumps could comprise around 40 percent of the domestic hot water market by 2036 – more if favourable government incentives and policies are implemented.

Moreover, actions which are contained in the roadmap will deliver significant benefits.

Provision of published audit data, for example, will improve transparency and enable government, regulators, and industry to determine where problems are occurring along with actions which may be needed to address concerns.

Should data be available for individual products, this will provide government, industry and consumers with transparency about the nature and prevalence of problems are occurring on these particular offerings.

Meanwhile, the recommendations around skills and training (see above) will help to ensure that installations are completed only by those who have the appropriate knowledge and skills to perform the installation safely and correctly.

This is important as not all plumbers and apprentices have been trained in HPHWS technology and installation.

Energy Efficiency Council CEO Luke Menzel welcomed the roadmap release.

“This is about empowering industry to collaborate on a set of principles and recommendations it can rally behind to help transform the hot water market in Australia,” Menzel said.

“Developed using a consensus approach, not only does the roadmap create meaningful industry commitment to actions that will support the scale-up of the HPHWS market, its ambition can be scaled up over time, as Australia builds more capacity during this critical decade for action to reduce emissions.”

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