Some 100,000 heat pumps were sold in 2022, an increase of 37% on the year before, figures from heating equipment sector body NVI have shown.

Nevertheless, the sale of traditional gas boilers still outstripped heat pumps with sales of 440,000, and this figure too is up slightly on 2021. Part of the jump in heat pump sales is down to the growing popularity of hybrid pumps which work in conjunction with boilers.

‘The high gas price is boosting the sustainability drive. There has not been a time when it made more financial sense to buy a heat pump,’ Doekle Terpstra, chairman of installation sector organisation Techniek Nederland told broadcaster NOS.

The government has said that from 2026, home owners who want to replace their old boiler will have to choose a more environmentally friendly option, such as a hybrid heat pump, a fully electrical pump or district heating.

Techniek Nederland said it is expecting a surge in sales of boilers in the next few years but that in the long term heat pumps will take over. The industry is hard at work to makes sure there are enough skilled workers to do the installing, it said.