Wow ok by an interesting coincidence I’m actually needing to upgrade my heating too (everyone moved off the building’s shared boiler, then voted to get rid of it at the one meeting I missed - hats off to them). Installing a new gas boiler and fitting it to the existing system means ripping up some of my (beautiful old and recently refurbished parquet) flooring so if this gives me a way to avoid that AND maybe cool the air relatively efficiently during the worst summer days I’ll definitely need to look into it!
Study it a bit while it's still warm and look up your local weather. [1]
The COP gets worse as Delta(T) increases and heat pumps are nowhere near the theoretical best, so at a certain point it's better to use gas. But that's typically below 0F (-10C).
I put in a four way Mitsubishi (2x as expensive but super silent) in my old home. Relatively happy with it, except I don't think the installers put enough coolant in it (it's best to instal a heat pump on a cool day). The air does gets a bit dry, so consider getting a heating humidifier for the night.
Finally, if you can afford it and if you can install it, a heat-pump with buried coolant lines really multiplies the efficiency (since the ground is above freezing and acts as a heat store through the seasons)
EDIT:
[1] If you live near a large body of water, especially if it's salty, it's very unlikely your cold days are cold enough to be a problem for the AC. Unless you live in Thunder Bay.
[2] AC is not a huge climate problem. Heating, cars, global supply chains, agriculture are bigger problems. AC just gets the attention because it's considered frivolous. A bigger problem is that modern homes are built with no consideration for cooling. My old house was 100 years old and naturally kept cool. My new house has at least 7 seven!!! skylights. It's impossible to cool. At least 5 of them face north :S
Yeah i'm in central europe which is somewhat approaching continental climate - so bitter winters and toasty summers (not quite as bad as some parts of Ukraine and Russia ofc). But I'll def read into it, I'm glad I at least have another option even if it might not work out. Thanks!
In Massachusetts, homes with mini splits always have another heat source for when it gets cold enough that the efficiency drops. It’s more like 20F even though technically the devices can work down to 0F. If you want to go green you can try electric baseboards and just hope you rarely use them.
