biomass vs heatpump heating and cooling?

what do you think is more practical. in an urban environment do you think biomass or heat pump for hydronic boiler heating is better? how do you heat a home if on vacation for a long time. should resistance heating be used for backup to a wood or pellet boiler? or set and forget with heat pump or electric heating. does a radiant hot water heating system require a smaller boiler due to not needing to heat the water as hot? boilers and solar thermal can not only heat but produce domestic hot water and run and absorption chiller for home cooling.