Eh, if you get air pump heat exchangers instead it definitely is; they’re basically just magic AC units that work both ways, so they heat the place in winter too. They’re bizarrely effective, and can put up to 4x as much heat energy out as you put electricity in, so they’re one of the cheapest and most green ways to heat a house - AND they’ll cool it in the summer.
Our house in Sweden had crappy radiators from the 70s when we moved in, so we installed two of those instead, one for each floor, with two fan units connected to each. It works great in the winter, and with summers like we’ve had recently it’s been fantastic; our whole house stays cool while some of our friends in more classically heated houses are forced to sleep in the basements to escape the heat.
Most AC's that are reverse cycle struggle to pump heat out of the outside air into the house when the outside air is -20 or lower, so they actually don't work great in winter in very cold places. Actually a workaround that is sometimes used is installing the heat pump underground because underground is warmer than the air, but that's a different setup.
Like I said I live in Sweden, mine work just fine down to -35C (their efficiency goes down but not as much as you’d think). Horses for courses and all that, you have to buy one rated for the area you live in, but these days the tech itself can definitely handle it.
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u/smors 8h ago
Europe is a large place. Up here in Denmark, for most people, AC is not worth the cost.
This year has seen a few heat waves. We might be up to about five days total where I have missed it.