Hot water heat has made steam heat obsolete in homes and smaller buildings. Water is heated in a boiler until it becomes steam. Steam, which is a gas, rises through the pipes into radiators. The steam causes these radiators to become hot. These radiators warm the air in a building.
Steam heat is noisy, and buildings with steam heat often warm unevenly.
The pipes used with steam heat have a long life expectancy, and the piping typically used for steam system is not readily converted to hot water heating systems . If your house was built with steam heat, it is probably not cost-effective to convert it to hot water heating . Although steam heat is rarely installed in new homes or small buildings, it is often the heating system of choice in a high-rise building. This is because of the difficulty in pumping hot water to the upper levels of a high-rise building. Essentially, a heat pump is an air-conditioner working in reverse.