[radishingr]

By switching from burning Russian hydrocarbons for heat to heat pumps so you can heat and cool while being more efficient? This isn't a rebuild, it is a moderate adaptation to the actual requirements to live in the Europe of today.

For steam based heat systems there is also cooling options, so that is a fix for those cities with central heat service.

[adrianN]

Cooling buildings with air-water heat pumps like you would use to replace an oil or gas furnace doesn't work very well.

[CalRobert]

Yes, which is why we should stop installing them and use air to air heat pumps instead, which do both.

Bonus - you can throw your bulky, ugly radiators out too!

[tpm]

They are noisy though and many people including me would hate air heating, my airways suffer enough already.

[CalRobert]

the interior units are very quiet in my experience...

What's wrong with heating air? It was the norm in every house I grew up in...

[tpm]

Yeah, the outdoor units are quite often not quiet. Which matters with houses on small plots very close to each other. For that reason a water-water (earth-water) heat pump would be preferable as that's much more quiet but also much more expensive.

My nose simply doesn't work with it, I get an allergy-like reaction that never stops (non-allergic rhinitis), and my wife has the same issue, and many people I know too.

[dzhiurgis]

Rhinitis is not exactly a disease. It's just a matter of your body getting used to it. Most likely it disturbs existing dust. Also - does your house have proper ventilation system? In high co2 environments I get rhinitis too.