1.1 Definition and scope of study

The heating market covers all devices for the production and transmission of heat for thermal comfort or industrial purposes.

There are different types of heating energy:

wood;
gas;
fuel oil;
pellets ;
electricity.

The types of heating used vary according to the geographical area, climate, habits but also according to the end user: for example, heating consumption in the tertiary sector is clearly different from that of households. The Italian sector as a whole - +10.8% in turnover in 2018 - has enjoyed in the last ten years a growth driven mainly by changes in consumption habits and in the cost of technologies and fuels. While the Italian tertiary sector is difficult to analyse, being complex and influenced by a multiplicity of factors, for households it is easier to observe that price is still a driving force of demand.

Domestic production, up by 5.4 percentage points compared to 2017, enjoys a foreign reputation, with about 68% devoted to exports and touches record sales in recent years. Many players are involved in the market: manufacturers of heating systems (around 2000 in 2017), distributors (around 3000 in 2017) and installers (around 50000 in 2017). They offer a wide variety of products: heat pumps, gas boilers, fuel oil boilers, pellet boilers, pellet stoves, electric radiators. In addition, a renewable heating supply is emerging to meet an increasingly environmentally friendly demand.

1.2 The European market

In EU households, heating and hot water alone account for **% of total final energy consumption. In industry, **.*% of energy consumption was used for space and process heating, while only **.*% was used for lighting and electrical processes such as machine motors, and *.*% for cooling. Almost **% of heating and cooling is produced from ...

1.3 The Italian market: in the driver's 'heat'

To take on this extensive market we will first look at the big picture and analyse the energy market in Italy and then zoom in, and look at heating.

In **** the primary energy consumption in Italy amounted to a total of *.** exajoules of energy. According to Eurostat, primary energy consumption is ...

1.4 Renewable energy used for heating

In **** renewable energy sources produced a total of *.** gigawatts worth of energy, an all time high. To put this into perspective * gigawatt is the equivalent *.* million horsepower, *.* million photovoltaic pannels, or *** million LED lights turned on. The turnover of the renewable energy sector was estimated at *.* billion in the same year, ...

1.5 Imports & exports

The UN Comtrade database allows us to determine global trade flows of certain goods. By using three codes we can observe imports and exports of heating appliances and systems. The codes are:

****: Radiators for central heating (***), air heaters and hot air distributors ******: Heaters, instantaneous gas heaters, for domestic or other ...

1.6 The Impact of COVID-19

In its reports of the first two trimesters of **** the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development (***) observed a massive drop-off in the consumption of energy in the peninsula. When industry, economic activity and transportation ground to a halt in March and April due to the confinement, so did ...

2.1 Household heating in Italy

As mentioned above, households represent more than **% of energy consumed for heating purposes, and **% of the energy consumed in households is dedicated to the purpose of heating environments or water.

Before delving into a deeper analysis, it is important to identify the presence of heating systems and appliances in Italian residences. ...

2.2 Heating consumption in other sectors

As mentioned above, most of the heat that is generated is in residences. However, the heat that is consumed in the industrial, agricultural and services sector is not insignificant. In fact, in **** industry consumed almost * terjoules of heat. One terajoule is equal to ** toe (***).

Direct heat consumption Italy, ****-****, in terajoules Source: ...

2.3 Latest trends in demand

With new technologies coming onto the market and an evolving demography the trends in demand change every few years. Below are outlined some of the requested heating system and appliances of the last few years.

Condensation stove: savings

In this appliance heat is generated with gas through combustion, but the excess ...

3.1 Italian production

Due to the vast but also diverse nature of this market it is hard to pinpoint one type of manufacture, or specialisation. The ISTAT database, and more specifically the Ateco code will help us identify the production value of heating systems and appliances. For this purpose we will use the codes ...

3.2 Main players and distribution

When speaking of heating appliances and systems, this market is highly fragmented. On the scene are present appliance manufacturing giants such as Samsung, who don't specialise in one exclusive appliance but are known for their quality are reliability, or other large non-specialised companies such as De'Longhi, as well as smaller companies ...

4.1 Typology of the offer

The heating market is quite varied and other than traditional chimneys, stoves, radiators and AC units there are many different ways that one can heat their home.

Hybrid heat pumps

This type of heat pump is an electric heat pump with a gas condensing boiler incorporated in it. Users chose their ...

4.2 Pricing

When speaking of prices for heating two things need to be taken into account:

the price of the energy that the appliances use to heat environments or water the price of appliances and systems themselves

With regards to the price of energy, below is a table outlining the prices of energy ...

5.1 Regulations

Direttive europee per i prodotti legati all'energia

La direttiva "Ecodesign" è una direttiva europea che impone un requisito minimo di prestazione su un certo numero di prodotti immessi sul mercato europeo. È accompagnata dalla direttiva sull'etichettatura energetica, che permette ai consumatori di essere informati e di confrontare prodotti dello stesso tipo in termini ...