Upfront costs are one of the biggest barriers to clean heating in Europe’s commercial and public rented buildings.
A new EU-funded project is set to tackle this by bringing life to an innovative Heat- Pumps on Subscription (HPoS) model. This should open the door for buildings to switch from fossil-fuel boilers to high-efficiency heat pumps with no upfront cost for either landlords or tenants.
Heat pumps are central to Europe’s climate and energy goals, yet their deployment in rented buildings is hampered by the landlord-tenant split incentive: building owners hesitate to invest in systems from which only tenants’ benefit, while tenants avoid financing improvements in properties they do not own.
HP SUBSCRIBE breaks this stalemate by shifting ownership and responsibility to a specialised third party. Instead of purchasing the equipment, users – meaning tenants in this case – pay a subscription fee, while the provider – the landlord – installs, finances and maintains the heat pump.
This subscription-based service guarantees modern, efficient and clean heating with reduced energy costs for tenants, while owners benefit from higher building value without the burden of capital investment.
“With HP SUBSCRIBE, we want to make clean heating accessible to every building, regardless of ownership structure or financial capacity. This project demonstrates that the energy transition can advance in a way that is fair, scalable and effective”, explains Petra Pomper, expert in the building sector at IEECP, coordinator of the project.
Over the next three years, HP SUBSCRIBE – of which the European Heat Pump Association is a consortium member – will put this model to the test through pilot actions in France, Austria and Greece, with market uptake support in Ireland, where the project will connect existing heat pump initiatives with service providers and financial partners.
Alongside these demonstrations, the project will explore regulatory and financial tools, including white certificate schemes and demand-response incentives, to boost the model’s economic attractiveness and help drive wider adoption across Europe.
Funded under the LIFE Programme with a total budget of €1,841,898, the project runs from November 2025 to October 2028. Its consortium unites leading organisations from the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland, combining expertise in heating technologies, finance, energy policy and market deployment.
The name HP SUBSCRIBE reflects its mission clearly: “HP” stands for heat pumps as the key clean-heating solution, while “SUBSCRIBE” signals a modern, service-based approach that makes clean heating accessible, affordable and easy to deploy in rented buildings.
By making clean heating as simple as subscribing, HP SUBSCRIBE aims to speed up the decarbonisation of leased spaces. Turning heat pumps into a service rather than a product opens the way for faster, scalable and financially attractive climate action across Europe’s building sector.
Project Partners are the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP); Hebes Intelligence Single Member I.K.E.; AEE – Institut fur Nachhaltige Technologien; Engie; R2M Solution; Findustrial GmbH; Enersave Capital SARL; Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving; European Heat Pump Association (EHPA); Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions Limited.
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