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Heat Interface Units: Powering Europe's Decarbonisation Journey in Buildings
Heat interface units (HIUs), on the European market for just over two decades, are becoming increasingly central to the building industry's efforts to decarbonise heating and improve energy efficiency. HIUs serve as the crucial connection between a centralised heat source and a building's internal heating and domestic hot water (DHW) systems, primarily designed for smaller heating or cooling loads, typically found in residential applications. They provide the functionality traditionally offered by domestic-sized boilers but within a network-dependent framework.
It is important to distinguish between "district networks," where an energy centre supplies multiple independent buildings (mixed domestic and non-domestic), and "community networks," where an energy centre serves a single building with multiple independent users, such as an apartment block. Currently, the majority of HIUs (over 70%) are installed in these centralised (community) heating systems within single buildings. Less than 30% are found in larger, multi-building district heating networks, including both new expansions and established systems. This suggests that while district heating expansion is a key driver for future growth, the existing prevalence of multi-occupancy buildings with in-building communal heating plants is the dominant, historically and currently, market for HIUs.
Most HIUs are installed in residential flats. While commercial users also adopt HIUs, particularly in multi-storey buildings connected to a central heating source, their needs vary. Often, commercial premises with existing air conditioning or ventilation systems for space conditioning primarily use HIUs for domestic hot water only.
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