Heat Pumps: Efficient on Paper, Complicated in Reality
26th February 2026
Heat pumps are having a moment. Governments promote them, utilities love them, and they are, now more often than ever, described as an obvious replacement for fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas), fueled heating. The basic idea sounds great…a heat pump works like a reverse refrigerator. Instead of “pushing heat out, it pulls heat in”. That heat can come from the air outside your house or from the ground below it.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) sums up the enthusiasm nicely. “Heat pumps, powered by low?emissions electricity, are the central technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating. Heat pumps currently available on the market are three?to?five times more energy efficient than natural gas boilers. That statement contains three big claims:
(1) heat pumps are three to five times more efficient,
(2) they run on “low-emission” electricity, and
(3) they are secure and sustainable
All three deserve a closer look, so here we go…