Solar Heating Solar energy doesn't cost you a thing - and it even works here in the UK. All you need is a solar heating system with highly efficient collectors and matching system components.
During the summer months, from May until August, the solar energy is sufficient to cover almost all of the DHW requirement. In the transitional months, solar energy can best be utilised to preheat the DHW, which can significantly reduce oil or gas consumption.
How does this work? It is very simple. It uses the sun to heat solar collectors which then transfer the heat to a hot water cylinder.
Is my house compatible? You need a south east to south west facing roof and enough space for the collectors to be mounted on your roof. You also need space to store the heated water( hot water cylinder)
Do I still need a boiler to heat my hot water? Yes. Your boiler will act as a back up and will work in conjunction to the solar heating. In summer you boiler will do very little work heating your hot water. In winter your boiler will be used more frequently although the solar heating will aid the boiler so it has to do less work when heating the hot water (using less energy)
Do I need a new boiler? Depending of what type of boiler/ system you have? There are a few different types of solar heating systems on the market that may be compatible with yours. It all depends on how much money you wish to spend on saving fuel.
A working demo is available please contact me for request. Below is photo of a Solar heating installation we did at Realto Gardens Salford in April 2007. It consists of 90 Viessmann tubes and is running a 500litre Viessmann solar hot water cylinder.
Viessmann Vitosol 200 evacuated tubes installed on roof of building This is how we ran the pipework from the collectors down the wall to the plant room. Due to the fact we had no other option to run the pipework externally, we ran the pipework inside 4 inch black soil pipe to try to blend the pipework in with the rest of the building
