72 4 Steps to decarbonising residential heat Strengthened new build rules Increase replacement rate 2020 2030 40% One of the biggest challenges we face to ensure a healthy and sustainable environment and contribute to carbon neutrality is to maximize usage of renewable energy, specifically when heating our homes. The majority of residential housing is still heated with outdated systems, often using polluting fossil fuels such as coal and oil. The challenge involved in tackling this is made all the more clear by The European Green Deal, which is a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the key aim of making Europe climate neutral in 2050 using green technology. All European member states have already put measures in place to ensure that new build houses and apartments have a better carbon performance by making an improved building envelope and the use of renewable energy mandatory. As a result, Daikin estimates that heat pumps already have up to 50% market share in new (single family) houses. A considerable additional benefit of hydronic heat pumps is the ability to use it to cool as well heat, which is increasingly becoming a consumer requirement. This is partly due to the climate change effect, but also because of the higher insulation level built houses. Today’s replacement rate is, on average, 1% of the total number of heating systems installed per year and meeting the minimum target would require that replacement ratio to double within the coming 10 years. Substituting heating devices with more efficient ones will constitute a move towards reducing CO2 emission. The challenge however is to motivate EU citizens to choose renewable heating more often, thereby convincing those in the replacement market that heat pumps are an efficient, cost-effective and established solution.
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