The international heat pump trade transports equipment and new energy technology to urban renewable energy systems around the world. However, this trade is unstable because of technology transfer, the ever-changing economic environment and policies. Thus, to quantitatively explore the stability of the international heat pump trade, three stability indices are designed to reflect changes in trade volume and relations. Then, the stability of international heat pump pattern is analyzed in three aspects, global, communities and countries. We found that (1) The global heat pump trade is relatively stable, which offers big opportunities for countries to develop new technology. Traditional energy trade and trade in new energies technologies like photovoltaic have influence on the stability of heat pump trade. (2) The European community is more stable than the East Asian-North community. The urgent mandate for energy savings and technical progress have made the East Asian-North American community the market with the greatest potential for the global heat pump trade. The US plays an important role in the East Asian-North American market. Thus, when countries like the US change trade policies, it might be a market signal for other countries that they should take measures against the potential shocks. (3) It is essential to maintain stable trade relationships with partners. Greenland, Canada and Mexico are the three most stable countries. Finally, the stability indices and network modeling could be introduced to study other international energy trade patterns.(C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.