For decades, fossil-fueled boilers have dominated the market for hydronic heat sources. There have been several successful, and progressively improved approaches for using a single boiler to supply all space heating and domestic hot water requirements of a building. Millions of such systems exist around the globe, and many fine products are available to support boiler-based hydronic heating systems.
But there’s a missing link which has long served as the “Achilles heel” of hydronics technology: When it comes to cooling, boilers are of no use. Most consumers don’t want to hear that a completely separate system needs to be installed if whole-building cooling is desired. There’s no doubt that the lack of cooling ability has scuttled many decisions to use hydronic heating, even when the latter was deemed the superior comfort choice.