ASHP Control Patent Landscape 2026
ASHP control IP is a concentrated, China-dominated field in active growth, with Gree Electric Appliance holding the largest position among a small cluster of major Chinese appliance groups. Activity has expanded 48% in the recent window, and filing volume remains elevated, making this a competitive space with limited Western presence.
Gree leads a concentrated field dominated by Chinese appliance majors
Gree Electric Appliance (Zhuhai) holds the top position with 56 patent families, ahead of Haier Smart Home at 36 and two Qingdao Haier operating subsidiaries at 27 and 26 respectively. The top five filers together account for 31% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers, indicating a moderately concentrated but not monopolized field.
A clear tier gap separates the top four — all major Chinese appliance groups — from the mid-tier players ranked fifth through tenth, who each hold between 12 and 16 patent families. Below that, numerous smaller specialists and university applicants hold fewer than ten families each.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gree Electric Appliance Inc. of Zhuhai | 56 | |
| 2 | Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | 36 | |
| 3 | Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics Co., Ltd. | 27 | |
| 4 | Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General Corp., Ltd. | 26 | |
| 5 | GUANGDONG CHIGO HEATING & VENTILATION EQUIP CO LTD | 16 | |
| 6 | Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone Haier Water Heater Co., Ltd. | 15 | |
| 7 | GUANGDONG TCL INTELLIGENT HEATING & VENTILATING EQ… | 13 | |
| 8 | Zhejiang Zhongguang Electric Co., Ltd. | 12 | |
| 9 | ZHEJIANG AMA & HIEN TECH | 12 | |
| 10 | CHINA SOUTHWEST ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN & RES INST CO… | 12 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | GD Midea Air Conditioning Equipment Co., Ltd. | 10 | |
| 12 | Beijing University of Technology | 10 | |
| 13 | GD MIDEA HEATING & VENTILATING EQUIP CO LTD | 10 | |
| 14 | Qingdao Haier New Energy Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. | 9 | |
| 15 | Wuxi Tongfang Artificial Environment Co., Ltd. | 8 | |
| 16 | QINGDAO HAIER SMART TECH R & D CO LTD | 8 | |
| 17 | Guangdong New Energy Technology Development Co., Ltd. | 8 | |
| 18 | Ningbo AUX Electric Co., Ltd. | 7 | |
| 19 | Zhejiang King Co., Ltd. | 7 | |
| 20 | Qingdao University of Technology | 6 |
China’s appliance majors, not merely a commodity engineering discipline. Their breadth across refrigeration cycle control and HVAC integration subclasses reinforces this.
Filings from 2025 and 2026 are underrepresented due to standard patent publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown in activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume has risen sharply since 2021, concentrated in refrigeration-cycle control
Two views of the corpus — annual filing volume and IPC class distribution — together show a field that has accelerated and deepened since 2021, with technology focus firmly anchored in refrigeration and heat-pump subclasses.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings were relatively stable in the 25–39 range from 2017 to 2020, then accelerated from 2021 onward, reaching a high of 71 in 2023 before settling at 66 and 67 in 2024 and 2025. The 2025 and 2026 bars are suppressed by publication lag and do not reflect true recent output. The 48% growth over the recent window confirms the field’s upward trajectory.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F25B (Refrigeration & heat pumps) is the dominant class by a wide margin, reflecting that ASHP control IP is primarily framed around refrigeration-cycle management — defrost logic, expansion-valve control, and cascade configurations. F24F (Air conditioning & ventilation) and F24D (Domestic heating systems) are secondary branches, while G06F (digital data processing) and G06N (AI models) appear at low counts, signaling early-stage but emerging interest in data-driven control approaches.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
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| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一种空气源热泵机组及其化霜控制方法 | 57 |
| 2 | 一种基于图像识别技术的空气源热泵除霜系统及其控制方法 | 54 |
| 3 | 一种空气源热泵机组及其电子膨胀阀的控制方法和装置 | 50 |
| 4 | 一种复叠式超低温空气源热泵机组及其控制方法 | 48 |
| 5 | 一种空气源热泵系统的节能控制方法及系统 | 44 |
| 6 | 一种除霜控制方法及空气源热泵系统 | 41 |
| 7 | 太阳能空气源热泵三联供系统及其控制方法 | 39 |
| 8 | 一种空气源热泵的除霜控制方法及空气源热泵 | 34 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the IP structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of a growth-stage lifecycle, moderate concentration, deep intra-group collaboration within Haier’s ecosystem, and near-exclusive. China jurisdiction coverage defines both the opportunity and the risk profile for new entrants.
Growth stage with sustained annual acceleration
The field is classified as Growth: annual filings are still rising and the most recent years are understated by publication lag. The 48% recent-window growth rate and the step-change in volume from 2021 onward are consistent with a technology area responding to policy-driven heat-pump deployment. Entrants can still establish meaningful positions before the field matures into a consolidation phase.
Lifecycle: GrowthModerate concentration with a clear leader tier
The top five filers hold 31% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers — moderate enough that challengers in the 12–27 family range can compete, but high enough that Gree and the Haier group set the technical agenda. The mid-tier (ranks 5–10) is populated by regional specialists and design institutes, suggesting room for focused differentiation in application-specific control methods.
Top-5 share: 31%Haier group drives the most active co-filing network
The densest co-filing relationships are entirely within the Haier ecosystem: Haier Smart Home co-files with Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics (27 joint families), Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General (26), and Qingdao Haier Smart Tech R&D (8), among others. This intra-group coordination allows Haier to deploy multiple operating entities on a single invention, broadening coverage without external partners. No significant cross-group or industry–academia collaboration pairs appear at comparable scale.
Collaboration: Haier ecosystemChina-dominant with minimal international protection
China accounts for 471 patent records — by far the largest jurisdictional share — while Europe (EPO), the United States, and WIPO (PCT) collectively hold only 17 records. India, Japan, South Korea, and Canada each have single-digit counts. This gap indicates that most ASHP control IP is protected only domestically in China, leaving non-Chinese markets largely open to independent filings by Western or Japanese players.
Lead jurisdiction: ChinaGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics Co., Ltd. | 27 |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General Corp., Ltd. | 26 |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General Corp., Ltd. | 26 |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone Haier Water Heater Co., Ltd. | 9 |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Smart Technology R&D Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Smart Technology R&D Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General Corp., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Smart Technology R&D Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone Haier Water Heater Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier New Energy Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. | 7 |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier New Energy Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. | 6 |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Qingdao Haier Intelligent Building Technology Co., Ltd. | 5 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Gree and Haier Smart Home lead, both accelerating strongly
The two largest filers are Chinese appliance majors with broad refrigeration-cycle and HVAC control portfolios; both have posted strong recent momentum, and several Haier subsidiaries are classified as new entrants in the recent period.
Gree Electric Appliance
Gree holds 56 patent families, the largest position in the corpus. Its technology focus spans F25B49 (refrigeration & heat pump control, 31 families), F24F11 (air conditioning & ventilation control, 29 families), and F25B30 (heat pump cycles, 17 families), indicating a broad control portfolio covering both the refrigeration cycle and system-level HVAC integration. Recent filing momentum is up 125% versus the prior three-year period, confirming active portfolio expansion rather than maintenance-mode activity.
families: 56Haier Smart Home
Haier Smart Home holds 36 patent families at the group-parent level, with additional coverage filed through three operating subsidiaries (Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics, 27; Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General, 26; and others), making the consolidated Haier position substantially larger in practice. Technology emphasis mirrors Gree’s — F25B49 (29 families), F25B30 (18 families), and F24F11 (10 families) — but Haier’s intra-group co-filing strategy distributes IP across subsidiaries. Haier Smart Home’s own momentum is up 92% in the recent period, and multiple subsidiaries are classified as new entrants, indicating a deliberate portfolio build-out.
families: 36| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Gree Electric Appliance Inc. of Zhuhai | 27 | ▲ +125% |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | 23 | ▲ +92% |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics Co., Ltd. | 17 | ▲ new entrant |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General Corp., Ltd. | 17 | ▲ new entrant |
| Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone Haier Water Heater Co., Ltd. | 6 | ▲ new entrant |
| Guangdong Chigo Heating & Ventilation Equipment Co., Ltd. | 14 | ▲ new entrant |
| Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech | 8 | ▲ new entrant |
| China Southwest Architectural Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 5 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches in domestic heating and data-driven control
The IPC class distribution reveals several branches adjacent to the dominant F25B core where patent density is notably lower relative to the technical relevance of the subject matter. These are observations of relative sparsity; technical value and entry feasibility vary by branch.
F24D · Domestic heating systems integration
With 51 patent records against the much larger F25B base, domestic-heating system integration — covering how ASHP units interface with hydronic radiators, underfloor heating circuits, and building thermal-mass management — remains sparse relative to its practical deployment importance. As heat-pump retrofits of legacy heating infrastructure accelerate in Europe and other cold-climate markets, control logic that bridges the ASHP refrigeration cycle with building-side hydraulic systems represents a plausible entry point for players targeting those geographies, where existing Chinese filings offer limited protection.
Search this in Eureka →G06F / G06N · Digital and AI-based control methods
G06F (electric digital data processing) and G06N (AI-based computing models) together account for only 23 patent records, a 2% share relative to the dominant F25B class. Given the demonstrated commercial interest in predictive defrost, demand-response integration, and model-predictive control for heat pumps, this sparse coverage suggests that data-driven and machine-learning control approaches are underprotected in this corpus. An entrant with algorithmic IP in predictive control, anomaly detection, or grid-interactive ASHP management could file in this space with limited overlap against the existing corpus, though cross-domain prior art from general HVAC and building-energy-management fields would need to be assessed.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across IPC subclasses
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | F25B 49 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 30 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 47 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 41 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F24F 11 · Air conditioning & ventilation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gree Electric Appliance Inc. of Zhuhai | Strong · 31 | Strong · 17 | Moderate · 12 | Moderate · 13 | Strong · 29 |
| Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. | Strong · 29 | Strong · 18 | Moderate · 9 | Moderate · 8 | Moderate · 10 |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics Co., Ltd. | Strong · 22 | Strong · 13 | Moderate · 8 | Moderate · 7 | Moderate · 7 |
| Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General Corp., Ltd. | Strong · 22 | Strong · 13 | Moderate · 8 | Moderate · 7 | Moderate · 6 |
| China Southwest Architectural Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. | Strong · 10 | Strong · 11 | Strong · 8 | Strong · 8 | Moderate · 3 |
| Zhejiang Zhongguang Electric Co., Ltd. | Strong · 12 | Strong · 8 | Moderate · 5 | Moderate · 5 | Absent |
| Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech | Strong · 13 | Absent | Strong · 7 | Moderate · 5 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The analysis covers 454 patent families in scope. This represents a global snapshot with China as the dominant filing jurisdiction by a significant margin.
Gree Electric Appliance (Zhuhai) leads with 56 patent families, ahead of Haier Smart Home at 36 families. Multiple Haier operating subsidiaries also appear in the top rankings independently.
Yes. The field is in a Growth lifecycle stage, with annual filings rising and recent-window growth of 48%. Filing volume accelerated from 2021 onward and reached 71 in 2023. The 2025 and 2026 counts are suppressed by publication lag and do not indicate a slowdown.
F25B (Refrigeration & heat pumps) is dominant, reflecting that most ASHP control IP covers refrigeration-cycle management — defrost logic, expansion-valve control, and cascade configurations. F24F (Air conditioning & ventilation) and F24D (Domestic heating systems) are secondary branches.
Protection is heavily concentrated in China, with 471 patent records filed there. Europe (EPO) has 8, the United States has 5, and WIPO (PCT) has 4. This means non-Chinese markets have limited existing coverage, which may create freedom-to-operate opportunities for non-Chinese players.
The most active co-filing relationships are internal to the Haier group. Haier Smart Home, Qingdao Haier Air Conditioning Electronics, and Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner General co-file extensively with each other (up to 27 joint families per pair). No significant cross-group or broad industry–academia co-filing pairs appear at comparable scale in the evidence.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from PatSnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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