Germany's subsidy policy supports the use of natural refrigerant products, and R290 heat pumps hold tremendous development potential.

On January 1, 2023, the new federal fund support measures for green and energy-efficient buildings in Germany officially took effect. This fund is designed to provide subsidies for the upgrading of heating systems in the building environment. Heat pump products eligible for this subsidy must have a COP value of 2.7 or above and be filled with natural working substances.

According to the calculations of the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, this subsidy constitutes 40% of the cost for consumers' purchase of heat pump products, including a 25% basic subsidy, a 5% subsidy for the use of natural working substances, and a 5% subsidy for heat sources being surface water or sewage. However, the two subsidies for natural working substances and heat sources are not cumulative. This implies that if the heat pump product purchased by consumers does not use natural working substances and the heat source is not surface water or sewage, they will not be able to obtain this subsidy offered by the German government.

Currently, the main natural working substance filled in residential heat pump equipment in Europe is R290. With the implementation of this subsidy policy, heat pump products using R290 will be promoted on a large scale.

In fact, since the outbreak of the energy crisis, the demand for heat pump products in Germany and even the European market has soared. The German Heat Pump Industry Association predicts that 230,000 new heat pumps were installed in 2022 and 350,000 in 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 52%. The report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that in the first half of 2022, the sales of heat pumps in some EU member states doubled compared with the same period in 2021. It is expected that the annual sales of heat pumps in EU countries are expected to reach 7 million units in 2023, and the global total installed capacity of heat pumps is even projected to reach 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours. By then, the proportion of heat pumps in the global building heating system will reach 20%.

This set of data from the IEA not only instills confidence in the development of the heat pump market but also, with the increase in the overall market size of heat pumps, the application of R290 in heat pumps will embrace huge development opportunities.

Standards have also given a boost to the application of R290 in the heat pump industry. In May 2022, the IEC stated on its official website that the draft of IEC 60335-2-40 ED7 "Particular Requirements for Heat Pumps, Air Conditioners and Dehumidifiers" was unanimously approved. This means that the increase in the limit of the filling amount of R290 and other flammable refrigerants in household air conditioners, heat pumps and dehumidifiers has been unanimously passed in the IEC standard. On May 21, 2022, the Subcommittee on Major Components for Household Appliances of the National Technical Committee for Household Appliance Standardization led the revision of the "Hermetically Sealed Motor-Compressor for Household and Similar Heat Pump Water Heaters" standard. The complete draft for soliciting opinions of this standard has been published and is currently in the approval stage. It is understood that the biggest change in this standard revision is the revision of the scope of application, adding R290 refrigerant, etc.

It is not hard to see that whether at the policy level or the standard level, promoting the application of R290 in heat pump products has become an inevitable trend. Driven by this, mainstream enterprises have also actively positioned themselves in this market.

At the 2022 Mostra Convegno Expocomfort (MCE) in Milan, Italy, HEEALARX INDSTRY LIMITED  prominently displayed a series of household heat pump products using R290, attracting high attention from many industry insiders. It is reported that since 2020, HEEALARX has begun to vigorously develop heat pump floor heating machine products using R290 as the refrigerant.

At the 2022 CHILLVENTA in Germany, to meet the heat pump heating demand in the Nordic region, GMCC&Welling created an R290 heat pump overall solution. This solution has an evaporation temperature of only -35℃, a compression ratio of up to 17, and a maximum condensation temperature of up to 83℃. Through innovative technology to optimize the motor, fan and circulation pump, it brings improvements in performance in terms of efficiency, reliability, and noise reduction.

To integrate into the Australian market, Phnix has launched the R290 air source heat pump Everest series products, which combine multiple excellent features and represent Phnix's most advanced heat pump technology at present. It is introduced that the ErP (Energy-related Products) of the Phnix Everst series products reaches A+++, and the SCOP (Seasonal Coefficient of Performance) reaches 5.20.

Meanwhile, in China, since the second half of 2022, various provinces and cities have successively released carbon peak implementation plans, all emphasizing the promotion of products such as heat pumps. This will provide another boost to the application of R290 in the domestic heat pump field. At the same time, R290 is also rapidly expanding its territory in home appliance fields such as household air conditioners, dehumidifiers, ice makers, and heat pump dryers.

The spring of R290 has arrived.