I've been thinking for a while about the real life benefits of this kind of set up and up until recently had never actually encountered it. It always seemed like a good idea as you get the benefit of heating and hot water from solar but I've been unable to find any realistic unbiased information about its economics. Does anyone actually have such installation and more importantly used it through the winter with any kind of measurable gain for heating??
I know that modern panels are able to gain from natural light not just direct sunlight but one wonders how much during the winter.
Also a (possibly big) problem? I noticed that when I created a demand the boiler fired up shortly after to reheat the loss in the store, which seems a bit silly as then the solar is then only keeping the store warm in standby mode and the boiler is then boosting the recovery. Is there any obvious solution to giving the solar a better chance to recover the store on its own without compromising performance?
I thought about a delay on the boiler demand but then in low solar gain periods it might affect performance.
Using the biggest store possible, or more than 1(space problems :/) might lessen the demand but doesn't exactly solve the problem....
can't think of anything else of the top of my head..
Any thoughts?
I know that modern panels are able to gain from natural light not just direct sunlight but one wonders how much during the winter.
Also a (possibly big) problem? I noticed that when I created a demand the boiler fired up shortly after to reheat the loss in the store, which seems a bit silly as then the solar is then only keeping the store warm in standby mode and the boiler is then boosting the recovery. Is there any obvious solution to giving the solar a better chance to recover the store on its own without compromising performance?
I thought about a delay on the boiler demand but then in low solar gain periods it might affect performance.
Using the biggest store possible, or more than 1(space problems :/) might lessen the demand but doesn't exactly solve the problem....
can't think of anything else of the top of my head..
Any thoughts?