Making a rough performance estimate for conventional vapor compression and vapor recompression heat pumps is straight forward: Dividing the Carnot efficiency by 2 results in a reasonable estimate. Still, actual performance of heat pumps could easily vary to a large extent. With new and innovative heat pumps the discrepancies between the rough estimate and actual performance might be even larger as the Carnot efficiency is not the upper limit anymore due to the use of temperature glides. Lack of a simple method to determine the approximate performance of a heat pump will hinder the implementation of these novel types in industry. In this study a performance map is presented and it is shown that, for mechanical heat pumps, making use of the available temperature glide increases performance and reduces the payback period. While at low glides heat driven absorption heat pumps and vapor (re)compression heat pumps show the smallest payback times, mechanical heat pumps with large glides show to be more effective at higher temperature lifts when temperature glides are available. Due to improved performance, these mechanical heat pumps are able to achieve better economical results over their technical life time although they require higher initial investment. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.