Impacts of Leakage from Refrigerants in Heat Pumps

This report,  prepared for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) with support from the London South Bank University’s Centre for Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Research, assessed the environmental impacts of leakage of refrigerants from within heat pumps.

The study found that annual leakage rates from operation of heat pumps were of the order of 3.8% of installation charge for non-domestic applications and 3.5% for domestic applications. The level of CO2 reduction delivered by using heat pumps to replace fossil fuel-based heating is therefore an order of magnitude greater than the emissions associated with refrigerant loss.