Carbon Evidence

Evidence map

Heating: what the evidence base looks like

10 publications, 0 of them trials and 0 syntheses. This page describes the shape of that literature rather than summarising its conclusions.

Updated 4 min read 10 citations

What the evidence on heating is made of Of 10 publications on this topic, the breakdown by study type: 10 other. 10other (10)
10 publications, by study type. Volume is not strength — the same count can be a settled question or a pile of commentary, and which one it is depends almost entirely on this breakdown. Harvested from PubMed and Crossref; publication type as recorded by the source.

What this literature is made of

A reasonable volume of literature, but weighted towards reviews and observational work rather than trials. That is enough to describe a phenomenon and rarely enough to establish that an intervention works.

The distinction that matters most is between synthesis and primary research. A meta-analysis pools trials and is the closest thing to a settled answer a field produces. A narrative review is one group's reading of the same material and can be selective without being dishonest. Counting them together, which most citation counts do, obscures exactly the thing you want to know.

When the heating literature was published Publication years for the 10 papers on this topic, grouped into bands from before 2015 through to 2023 onwards. 2020-20225 papers2023 onwards4 papers2015-20191 papers
Still active. The most recent paper here is from 2026, so this is a field where an answer written today may not hold for long. Publication years as recorded by PubMed and Crossref.

How this page is built

Everything above is computed from the citations this site harvested from PubMed and Crossref, not written by hand. When the weekly harvest finds a new paper on this topic, these counts change and the characterisation changes with them. That is the point: a hand-written claim about how strong an evidence base is starts decaying the day it is written.

Publication type is taken as the source records it. That is imperfect — journals label inconsistently, and a paper indexed as a "review" may be a systematic one — so treat the bands as approximate. They are accurate enough to distinguish a trial literature from a commentary literature, which is the distinction that matters.

The strongest work on this topic

Ordered by study design first, then recency. The full set is listed in the references below.

  1. Ground source heat pump carbon emissions and ground‐source heat pump systems for heating and cooling of buildings: A review — Ahmadi M, Ahmadi M, Sadaghiani M et al., 2017, journal article
  2. A Passive Decarbonisation Approach for Hot-Arid Residential Structures: CFD Study of a Courtyard Earth-Air Heat Exchanger in Baghdad Assisted by Thermal Thrust — Raheem M, Zheng X, Wood C, 2026, journal article
  3. Performance Analysis of a Concentrated Photovoltaic–Thermal Hybrid System Coupled to a Heat Pump for Residential Heating Application — Lakehal Ayat M, Chaker A, Nedjar A et al., 2026, journal article
  4. The impact of subsidies on projected heat pump adoption and residential heating emissions in Massachusetts — Walter E, Eckelman M, 2025, journal article
  5. EFFICIENCY OF HEAT PUMP APPLICATIONS FOR ENHANCING THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF RESIDENTIAL HEATING SYSTEMS — Hlushchenko O, Mazhulis F, 2023, journal article
  6. Combined heat pump heating and ventilation system using heat of soil, sewage water and ventilation emissions — BEZRODNY M, OSLOVSKYI1 S, 2022, journal article
  7. Waste Heat Recovery by Air-to-Water Heat Pump from Exhausted Ventilating Air for Heating of Multi-Family Residential Buildings — Kowalski P, Szałański P, Cepiński W, 2021, journal article
  8. Dynamic Model of a Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump for Residential Water Heating — Diniz H, Paulino T, Pabon J et al., 2021, journal article
  9. Combined heat pump heating and ventilation system using heat of soil, sewage water and ventilation emissions — BEZRODNY M, OSLOVSKYI S, 2020, journal article
  10. Heat consumption scenarios in the rural residential sector: the potential of heat pump-based demand-side management for sustainable heating — Campos J, Csontos C, Harmat Á et al., 2020, journal article
How much research is there on heating?
10 publications are indexed here, of which 0 are trials and 0 are syntheses.
Does more research mean a stronger conclusion?
No. Composition matters more than volume — five randomised trials support a claim far better than fifty commentaries, and citation counts do not distinguish between them.
How current is this?
The most recent paper indexed here is from 2026. The set is refreshed weekly from PubMed and Crossref.
Why does this page not tell me the answer?
Because summarising a literature into a conclusion requires reading it, and doing that automatically is how confident nonsense gets published. This page tells you how much weight a conclusion could bear; the articles on this site do the interpreting.

References

Every citation below links to the original peer-reviewed record on PubMed or via DOI. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

  1. Ground source heat pump carbon emissions and ground‐source heat pump systems for heating and cooling of buildings: A review Ahmadi M, Ahmadi M, Sadaghiani M, et al. · Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy · 2017 · Journal article DOI
  2. Performance Analysis of a Concentrated Photovoltaic–Thermal Hybrid System Coupled to a Heat Pump for Residential Heating Application Lakehal Ayat M, Chaker A, Nedjar A, et al. · Journal of Solar Energy Engineering · 2026 · Journal article DOI
  3. A Passive Decarbonisation Approach for Hot-Arid Residential Structures: CFD Study of a Courtyard Earth-Air Heat Exchanger in Baghdad Assisted by Thermal Thrust Raheem M, Zheng X, Wood C · Global Decarbonisation · 2026 · Journal article DOI
  4. The impact of subsidies on projected heat pump adoption and residential heating emissions in Massachusetts Walter E, Eckelman M · Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability · 2025 · Journal article DOI
  5. EFFICIENCY OF HEAT PUMP APPLICATIONS FOR ENHANCING THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF RESIDENTIAL HEATING SYSTEMS Hlushchenko O, Mazhulis F · Sworld-Us Conference proceedings · 2023 · Journal article DOI
  6. Combined heat pump heating and ventilation system using heat of soil, sewage water and ventilation emissions BEZRODNY M, OSLOVSKYI1 S · Journal of Thermal Engineering · 2022 · Journal article DOI
  7. Waste Heat Recovery by Air-to-Water Heat Pump from Exhausted Ventilating Air for Heating of Multi-Family Residential Buildings Kowalski P, Szałański P, Cepiński W · Energies · 2021 · Journal article DOI
  8. Dynamic Model of a Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump for Residential Water Heating Diniz H, Paulino T, Pabon J, et al. · Sustainability · 2021 · Journal article DOI
  9. Heat consumption scenarios in the rural residential sector: the potential of heat pump-based demand-side management for sustainable heating Campos J, Csontos C, Harmat Á, et al. · Energy, Sustainability and Society · 2020 · Journal article DOI
  10. Combined heat pump heating and ventilation system using heat of soil, sewage water and ventilation emissions BEZRODNY M, OSLOVSKYI S · Journal of Thermal Engineering · 2020 · Journal article DOI