cheers
By way of getting you over the bad news about solid fuel, there is another thing you could throw in when you aren't getting much solar heat in the winter.
You could rob a bit of free energy from the boiler flue with one of
these
doesn't a condensing boiler aim to reuse the flue heat ?
Yes it does re-use the flue heat and once the flue heat gets below 100ºc it will condense. The final temp of flue gases is around the 70ºC mark.
What this device does is take the heat from condensing point downover and uses it to pre-heat the cylinder water.
Winter mains cold water temp is about 5ºC so imagine if you could use this 'free' Well OK 'otherwise waste' energy and preheat a cylinder of water to say 55ºC.
When you run this 55ºC stored water through the combi for DHW you will only need a 5ºC temp rise to attain the 60ºC for use. That means the combi has to do less work , burn less gas and give a higher flow rate.
Compare that with a normal combi's winter work of taking the 5ºC water and knocking it out at 60ºC Watch the gas meter whizz round when you get hot water and imagine the difference if it was only turning at less than 1/10 of that speed.
Keep it in perspective though. While this is an eco-toy and it will save you money I cant see it justifying itself until the gas prices have trebled.
Is it worth getting in anticipation? - Time will tell.
If you are a true eco warrior and unilaterally green regardless of cost then I dare say it will be seen as a 'must have' to compliment summer solar preheating.
There is another factor to think about regards the use of the energycatcher. Imagine if you had a preheat tank just sat in your house and the heating was running and your house temp was 20ºC. A preheat cylinder on its own would eventually absorb heat from its in house environment and preheat itself to the temp of its surroundings.
One point that could be a big plus where theres flue issues. After going through the energycatcher the flue gases are at such a low temp that they can barely support moisture. That will be joyous news for those with steam trail problems.
As for the 5% energysaver, turn the temp down by 1 degree and you get 7% and you haven't had to pay for some more ironmongery.
Its plastic !
Turn the stat down get your 7%
Do the energycatcher as and when you can see the 5% saving make it a viable proposition.
I don't think that this is possible as the solar should be kept as a separate circuit.. once the boiler water temperature is warmer than the flow temp of the solar , then the solar would shut down anyway so there would be very little gain...Plus your entire heating circuit would have to be filled with the same fluid as in the solar...
Very possible. one sealed circuit and coil for solar and the other megaflow coil for the energycatcher.
Heating circuit is separately supplied from the combi.
