ASHP Sensor Integration Patent Landscape 2026
Octopus Energy Heating Ltd holds a clear lead in a moderately fragmented field of 190 patent families, with China the dominant filing jurisdiction. Annual volume has plateaued near its 2020 peak, signalling a maturing but still-active technology space with selective white space in adjacent branches.
Octopus Energy Heating leads a fragmented but maturing field
Octopus Energy Heating Ltd ranks first with 20 patent families, more than twice the count of the second-ranked applicant, Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech, which holds 7. The top five filers together account for 21% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, a relatively low concentration ratio that reflects broad participation across many smaller applicants.
No single applicant commands a dominant block. The tier gap between the leader and the second rank is meaningful, but beyond that, counts drop quickly into single digits, producing a long tail of one- to three-family filers. This structure suggests that specialised IP positions are available across most sub-segments.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Octopus Energy Heating Ltd | 20 | |
| 2 | ZHEJIANG AMA & HIEN TECH | 7 | |
| 3 | Delport Peter Jason | 5 | |
| 4 | Dalian Shengding Industrial Equipment | 4 | |
| 5 | Zhongyuan University of Technology | 4 | |
| 6 | Guangdong Oriental Sunrise Air Energy Co., Ltd. | 4 | |
| 7 | Michael Robert Heron | 3 | |
| 8 | Zhejiang Defu New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. | 3 | |
| 9 | Qingdao Aolike Energy Co., Ltd. | 3 | |
| 10 | Lute Guochuang (Weifang) Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd. | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Heaven Sent Gaming | 3 | |
| 12 | Zhongshan Amitime Electric Co., Ltd. | 3 | |
| 13 | Relicube Technology (Foshan) Co., Ltd. | 3 | |
| 14 | Quantum Energy Technology Suzhou | 3 | |
| 15 | Boen Solar Technology | 3 | |
| 16 | Michael Robert Heron | 2 | |
| 17 | Xi’an Jingjie Electronics Technology | 2 | |
| 18 | Liaoning Jijia Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 19 | Warm Environmental Equipment Qidong Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 20 | Guangdong Midea Air Conditioning Equipment Co., Ltd. | 2 |
Octopus Energy Heating’s position as a new entrant with 20 families in a single recent window indicates a rapid, focused build rather than an accumulated legacy portfolio, which may make its claims more targeted to current sensor-integration architectures. Chinese mid-tier applicants—Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech, Dalian Shengding Industrial Equipment, and Zhongyuan Engineering College—occupy the next band and span both commercial and academic origins.
Filings from the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and will likely revise upward; current counts for 2024–2025 should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity has plateaued after a 2020 peak; heat-pump refrigeration dominates the technology mix
Two charts together describe the pace and composition of ASHP sensor integration innovation: the annual trend reveals how activity has evolved since 2017, while the IPC branch breakdown shows which technical domains capture most of the work.
Annual filing trend
Filings peaked at 34 in 2020, eased through 2021–2022, and partially recovered to 32 in 2024 before the expected publication-lag drop in 2025. The overall pattern is a plateau rather than a sustained climb, consistent with the field’s maturity assessment. The 2025 and 2026 figures are provisional and will grow as pending applications publish.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F25B (Refrigeration & heat pumps) dominates with 251 IPC records, reflecting its role as the core technical home for heat-pump cycle and control innovations. F24H (Fluid heaters & water heaters) is the next-largest branch at 43, capturing domestic hot-water applications. F25D, F24D, and F24F together account for a further 67 records, pointing to secondary application areas in cooling, domestic heating systems, and air conditioning. Measurement and control classes—G01K, G01D, G05D—appear at the margin, suggesting that dedicated sensor-science claims remain sparse relative to system-level patents.
↗ 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.
Control System And Air Source Heat Pump
The present teachings provide a modular air source heat pump system (ASHP system) with an internal assembly, an external assembly, a refrigerant module, sensors, and a control system. The refrigerant module is removably connected to the external assembly. The sensors are located within the internal assembly and configured to monitor internal conditions… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 双水箱系统空气源热泵热水器 | 30 |
| 2 | Boosted air source heat pump | 27 |
| 3 | Boosted air source heat pump | 25 |
| 4 | 空气源热泵机组除霜控制方法 | 21 |
| 5 | 空气源热泵热水机组 | 21 |
| 6 | 空气源热泵热水器 | 19 |
| 7 | 一种空气源热泵除霜控制系统及方法 | 17 |
| 8 | 空气源热泵热水机组的除霜方法 | 15 |
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 structure means for R&D strategy
The combination of a maturing filing curve, a fragmented applicant base, and thin coverage in measurement-specific IPC classes shapes where incremental and differentiated R&D investment is most likely to yield protectable output.
Field is at a plateau stage, not early growth
Annual filings have plateaued near their 2020 peak. The field is not in a rapid early-growth phase, which means foundational system architectures are largely established. R&D investment is most defensible in differentiated sensing modalities and control algorithms rather than broad system claims that incumbents likely already hold.
Lifecycle: MaturityLow top-5 share leaves room for focused entrants
The top five filers hold only 21% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, and no applicant outside the leader holds more than 7 families. This low concentration means there is no single blocking portfolio that a new entrant must design around at the outset. A focused filing program in a specific sensor sub-domain—defrost detection, refrigerant-leak sensing, or grid-response instrumentation—can build a credible position without head-on collision with a dominant incumbent.
Fragmented fieldCo-filing activity is minimal; ecosystem is largely siloed
Only one co-filing pair is recorded in the evidence: Guangdong Oriental Sunrise Air Energy Co., Ltd. and Oriental Sun Holdings Co., Ltd., with a single joint family. The near-absence of cross-entity collaboration suggests that the ecosystem has not yet coalesced around shared sensing platforms or open standards. For a new entrant, a partnership with a component supplier or a building-controls integrator would be relatively unusual and could serve as a differentiating signal to the market.
Low collaborationChina dominates filings; Western markets are thin
China accounts for 204 IPC-jurisdiction records, far ahead of WIPO PCT at 9, Europe at 8, Australia and South Korea at 7 each, and the United Kingdom and United States at 6 each. Western filing activity is thin relative to the overall corpus, which may reflect both lower domestic adoption and a gap in IP protection for products targeting European and North American heat-pump rollout programs. Filing PCT or direct national applications in the UK, EU, or US could secure protection where competitive density is currently low.
China-centricGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Guangdong Oriental Sunrise Air Energy Co., Ltd. | Oriental Sun Holdings Co., Ltd. | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Octopus Energy Heating leads; Chinese mid-tier applicants span commercial and academic origins
Two tiers are visible: a single clear leader with a rapidly accumulated portfolio and a cluster of mid-tier applicants at 4–7 families each, most concentrated in F25B refrigeration-cycle sub-classes.
Octopus Energy Heating Ltd
Octopus Energy Heating Ltd holds 20 patent families and entered the ranking as a new entrant, building its entire position in a single recent filing window. Its technology emphasis is tightly focused on F25B13 (heat-pump refrigeration cycles), F25B47, and F25B49—all within the refrigeration and heat-pumps class—indicating a deliberate strategy to protect sensor-integrated control at the cycle level rather than at the peripheral component level.
families: 20Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech
Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech ranks second with 7 patent families, its momentum trend not separately quantified in the evidence but placing it well ahead of the three- to four-family tier. Its filings cluster in F25B49, F25B30, and F25B47, a profile similar to the leader but at a smaller scale, suggesting it competes in overlapping heat-pump control territory without the same portfolio depth.
families: 7| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Octopus Energy Heating Ltd | 20 | ▲ new entrant |
| Zhejiang Zhengli Sheneng Technology Co., Ltd. | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Guangdong Oriental Sunrise Air Energy Co., Ltd. | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches worth monitoring
Several IPC classes adjacent to the dominant F25B core show sparse filing counts relative to their technical relevance to sensor-integrated ASHP systems. These are observations of relative sparsity; whether they represent viable entry points depends on an applicant’s specific technical capabilities and commercial roadmap.
F24F · Air conditioning & ventilation
With 16 IPC records and a 4% share of the corpus, F24F covers ventilation and air-conditioning control—an adjacent domain where ASHP sensor data (temperature, humidity, occupancy) can drive demand-controlled ventilation. The sparse count may reflect that most applicants file sensor-integration claims under the refrigeration-cycle classes rather than the air-side system classes, leaving a potential gap for claims directed at sensor-informed zone control and indoor-air-quality integration. Entry requires demonstrating novelty on the air-distribution side rather than the refrigerant-cycle side.
Search this in Eureka →F24S · Solar heat collectors
F24S holds 14 IPC records and a 3% share, pointing to sparse coverage of hybrid solar-ASHP configurations where sensor integration governs source switching and thermal storage dispatch. As solar-thermal plus heat-pump hybrid systems gain traction in decarbonisation programmes, coordinated sensor architectures that optimise between the two heat sources represent an under-served technical area. Applicants with expertise in both solar thermal and refrigeration controls are best positioned to build here.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | F25B 30 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 49 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 47 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 41 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 13 · Refrigeration & heat pumps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octopus Energy Heating Ltd | Moderate · 9 | Strong · 14 | Strong · 14 | Absent | Strong · 20 |
| Zhejiang Zhengli Sheneng Technology Co., Ltd. | Strong · 4 | Strong · 6 | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent |
| Zhongyuan University of Technology | Absent | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Moderate · 2 |
| Delport Peter Jason | Strong · 5 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Strong · 5 |
| Guangdong Oriental Sunrise Air Energy Co., Ltd. | Absent | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence corpus contains 190 patent families in scope for ASHP sensor integration.
Octopus Energy Heating Ltd ranks first with 20 patent families, more than double the count of the second-ranked applicant, Zhejiang AMA & Hien Tech, which holds 7 families.
The top five filers account for 21% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, which is a relatively low concentration ratio. The field has a long tail of small applicants, and no single entity holds a blocking position across the full technology space.
China is the leading filing jurisdiction with 204 IPC-jurisdiction records. WIPO PCT filings stand at 9, Europe at 8, and Australia and South Korea each at 7. The United Kingdom and United States each record 6.
The evidence classifies the field at a Maturity stage, with annual filings having plateaued near the 2020 peak of 34 families. This indicates that foundational architectures are largely established, though selective innovation continues.
F24F (Air conditioning & ventilation) and F24S (Solar heat collectors) are the most notable adjacent branches with low filing density—16 and 14 IPC records respectively—compared with the dominant F25B class at 251 records. These branches may offer entry points for applicants with relevant technical capabilities, though they should be evaluated against specific commercial goals before treating them as validated opportunities.
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