Town hall meetings help homeowners feel more informed and confident about switching to heat pumps.
In Germany, few questions about the built environment are as politically charged as how to heat a home. Research on heat pump adoption points to a practical way to cut through that and let the decision-makers, homeowners, assess their options objectively: fact-based conversations led by trusted intermediaries. That is also the premise behind the Wärmepumpen-Infotage (Heat Pump Information Days), a nationwide series of townhall events that the Toni Piëch Foundation is studying to quantify its effectiveness and scalability.
WHO IS BEHIND THE WÄRMEPUMPEN-INFOTAGE?
The series was initiated and is coordinated by Anja Floetenmeyer-Woltmann, an energy expert, EU Climate Pact Ambassador, and member of the EU heat pump advisory board. On stage she is joined by Carsten Herbert, known across Germany as the "Energiesparkommissar" and a bestselling author. The events are deliberately manufacturer-neutral and fact-based. They are enabled by the Bundesverband Wärmepumpe (BWP) and heating manufacturers, but the stage belongs to the municipalities and local energy agencies that host each evening.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Despite the politicized debate around heat pumps, the shift is already underway. According to the Bundesverband Wärmepumpe (BWP), around 300,000 heating heat pumps were sold in Germany in 2025, up more than 50 percent on the previous year. Just under 80 percent went into existing buildings, usually replacing an older fossil-fuel heating system. This makes heat pumps a key enabling technology for renovating and electrifying Germany's aging building stock, while lowering the country's dependence on fossil fuels and the occupants' exposure to their price shocks. Sustaining that momentum longer term depends on also reaching homeowners who want, or need, to act but are unsure where to find reliable, independent information for their decision. With early evidence supporting in-person events as viable format, this project builds a case study around the Wärmepumpen Infotage to assess its effectiveness, scalability, and transferability to other contexts.
WHAT IS THE APPROACH?
Since Autumn 2025, the Wärmepumpen-Infotage have been conducting a series of in-person events in cities across Germany, such as in Hannover, Bonn, Freiburg, and Stuttgart. Each evening pairs clear, jargon-free talks with open question rounds. Before and after, local trade firms offer free, individual advice on the same night, so a homeowner can move from a general question to a concrete plan for their own house. By April 2026, the first series of 13 municipal events had already drawn 7,178 people. The format rests on a few principles:
WHAT IS TPF'S ROLE?
The Toni Piëch Foundation is sponsoring the application of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework to the first series of Wärmepumpen-Infotage with €18,000. The findings of 3,172 analyzed questionnaires of participants (44% response rate) will be complied into the above elaborated case study.