What your device must be able to do to receive a public subsidy

A quote is on the table, the price is right, the date too. Whether the device is eligible for a public subsidy often only becomes clear during the application — and then it is unpleasant.

Yet this can be checked beforehand. The Austrian public subsidy guidelines differ significantly in amounts and deadlines, but three requirements appear almost everywhere. If you know them, you can cross-check a quote yourself in five minutes.

1. The EHPA quality seal

Both guidelines cited below require "compliance with the EHPA quality seal criteria", and both add the same addition: confirmed by an independent testing institute.

The EHPA quality seal is a European quality mark for electrically operated heat pumps. Behind it are minimum values for efficiency, requirements for documentation and customer service as well as tested measured values — tested not by the manufacturer themselves.

For you, this means: the question is not "is this a good device", but simply "does it have the seal". Without the seal, the discussion about everything else is obsolete.

2. The refrigerant and its global warming potential

Both guidelines set the same limit: the refrigerant used must not exceed a GWP of 2.000 — Tyrol specifies "according to the 5th IPCC Assessment Report".

GWP stands for Global Warming Potential and describes how strongly a substance acts as a greenhouse gas compared to CO₂. A GWP of 2.000 means: one kilogram of this substance acts like two tonnes of CO₂ if it escapes.

In practice, this hurdle is rarely a problem for new devices — the market has shifted strongly towards refrigerants with a low GWP, above all propane (R290) with a value in the single digits. The limit becomes relevant for older stock devices and for quotes that are noticeably cheap.

If in doubt, ask about the refrigerant and have them tell you the GWP value. It is in the data sheet, and in Upper Austria it is explicitly asked for in the public subsidy form.

3. The GET product database

This is the most practical point because you can look it up yourself.

The GET database is the Austrian product database for building energy technology. Tyrol formulates its role clearly: for checking the technical requirements, "fundamentally the product declaration on the GET product database" serves as the basis.

What this means: It is not the sales pitch that decides, but the entry in the database. That is where the values are that the public subsidy authority uses — output, efficiency, sound power level, refrigerant.

If you are offered a specific model, look it up there before you sign. If it is not in there, that is no proof of a bad device — but it is a reason to clarify before signing how the proof is to be provided otherwise.

What individual federal states additionally require

Beyond this common core, it becomes specific to the federal state. Two examples from the checked guidelines:

Vorarlberg additionally requires measurement technology: for self-monitoring of the seasonal performance factor, "a heat meter and a separate electricity meter must be present". This is not a harassment clause, but the only way to know later whether the system is actually running efficiently. Anyone who installs the meters anyway gets something out of it — regardless of the public subsidy.

Tyrol and others tie it to the flow temperature. How this works and what it means for your house can be found in the article about the flow temperature.

⚠️ This list does not replace a look at the guideline of your federal state. We have checked the exact wording of two guidelines here and described the common denominator — further conditions may apply in the remaining federal states. The status per federal state can be found in the public subsidy overview.

The short version for the quote discussion

Four questions that should be clarified before signing:

1. Does the device have the EHPA quality seal?
2. Which refrigerant, which GWP value?
3. Is the model registered in the GET database?
4. Are the heat meter and electricity meter included in the quote? Mandatory in Vorarlberg, sensible everywhere else.

An installer who answers these four questions confidently generally works carefully in other respects too, according to experience. Evasive answers are the real signal — not the answer itself.