This is the most important answer. Radiators are actually used in combination with heat pumps to cool up to a few degrees Celsius in a non-condensing mode.
The problem is, it isn’t really effective. To really cool down, the radiators would need to get properly cold, but that requires cold water leading to condensation everywhere. In the radiator, but also around the piping in wall cavities, where it will feed mold growth.
A/C’s don’t have this problem because the piping doesn’t get cold and the heat exchanger (inside fan unit) gets very cold and the condensate gets captured in a drip tray and pumped away.
Here in Sweden we are now building out “remote cooling” as the direct translation would be, in addition to the decades old remote heating infrastructure we already have. It’s literally dedicated warm water and cold water lines from a central location in the city (usually a heat plant, often burning garbage, now also from central coolers) to various buildings. They’re properly insulated all the way, and connected to the central heating system in each building.
A building manager could hook it up to their general ventilation / A/C system to increase both heating and cooling capacity, often much more cost effective than using electricity locally for the same amount of capacity. Remote heating is already hooked up to radiators.
there are radiators with fans, blowing air through them to migitate for the condensation. that seems to work. it’s obviously more expensive than normal radiators. but you can buy them and connect them to a heat pump that supports that.
This is the most important answer. Radiators are actually used in combination with heat pumps to cool up to a few degrees Celsius in a non-condensing mode.
The problem is, it isn’t really effective. To really cool down, the radiators would need to get properly cold, but that requires cold water leading to condensation everywhere. In the radiator, but also around the piping in wall cavities, where it will feed mold growth.
A/C’s don’t have this problem because the piping doesn’t get cold and the heat exchanger (inside fan unit) gets very cold and the condensate gets captured in a drip tray and pumped away.
Here in Sweden we are now building out “remote cooling” as the direct translation would be, in addition to the decades old remote heating infrastructure we already have. It’s literally dedicated warm water and cold water lines from a central location in the city (usually a heat plant, often burning garbage, now also from central coolers) to various buildings. They’re properly insulated all the way, and connected to the central heating system in each building.
A building manager could hook it up to their general ventilation / A/C system to increase both heating and cooling capacity, often much more cost effective than using electricity locally for the same amount of capacity. Remote heating is already hooked up to radiators.
there are radiators with fans, blowing air through them to migitate for the condensation. that seems to work. it’s obviously more expensive than normal radiators. but you can buy them and connect them to a heat pump that supports that.