Sales of heat pumps in Europe fell in 2012, according to new figures released by research group EurObserv’ER.

Its latest Heat Pump Barometer for 23 countries in the EU found combined sales of ground and air source heat pumps fell to 1.65 million – a 7.9% drop from 2011.

EurObserv’ER said the market had seen a series of peaks and troughs since 2008, the result of the economic slowdown, financial uncertainties and low levels of new building. It put the fall in 2012 down to “tighter conditions in some of the key markets”.

The trend was not uniform across all the countries covered in the survey, with 12 actually seeing a bump in sales. The best performers included Denmark, Estonia, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

Spain, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria saw the sharpest falls in sales. The number of heat pumps sold in Britain also dropped, decreasing from 18,500 in 2011 to around 17,800 in 2012.

EurObserv’ER was optimistic about the prospects for 2013 expecting sales to rise by 8%.

In total 20.5 million heat pumps were operating in 2012, with energy generated the equivalent to 6.2 million tonnes of oil.