Replacement of gas boilers with air source heat pumps: An economic analysis based on a trnsys evaluation and on the actual energy prices in Italy

In this work, we investigate the replacement of a gas boiler with an electric air-to-water heat pump (AWHP) as a heating generation system for a detached single-family house. Attention is paid to the recent increase in energy prices in Italy. The evaluation of the energy consumption is done via a dynamic analysis performed by employing Trnsys. The investment results are economically advantageous only if the thermal energy demand is quite high, and the recent energy price increase (for both natural gas and electricity) leads to disadvantages in replacing the heat generation system in all the considered cases.