Vented Indirect Cylinder, Solid fuel boiler and underfloor heating

Good Morning,

I am in the early stages of planning the central heating system to install in a stone cottage. The property is currently served by a truburn solid fuel range with a back boiler capiable of 90 000 BTU (26kw)in 24h feeding a 117l tank. Aside from this there is no other heating source. In my mind I feel that it would be best to have underfloor heating downstairs and a raidiator in each room upstairs (3) plus a towel radiator.

I was wondering how I would go about connecting the range, solar and under floor heating. I was thinking that the truburn would feed in to the indirect hot water cylinder as the indirect heat source for the top coil with the out flowing to the radiators upstairs, and the solar as the indirect heat source at the base (I think you can find tanks which have two coils?). But I'm stumped as to how the underfloor heating would be connected to the system, I'm assuming the out from the solar would be too cold to feed the under floor heating. Equally I thought that feeding the underfloor heating from the radiators before it returns to the back boiler would be too hot? The Truburn would not be on during some of the Summer months and so I was also interested to know if a immersion heater and a solar panel would be enough for a 117L tank?

I am probably way off with how this all works so any advice or points in the right direction would be appreciated. I have looked around the forum, but can't find anything similar to this (which probably means I'm completely wrong in how it would be set up).

Many thanks,
Ed

Ed,
I would recommend you look at utilising a small ss buffer cylinder, say 250/300 ltr with a single solar coil and fresh water station. Look at Newark copper cylinders, call them and speak with Mark or Andrew. They will manufacture a cylinder you need. The solid fuel range will discharge all its energy into the buffer and your plumber can install the fresh water station and ufh pump set straight into the direct tappings. Failing that Joule cylinders also supply similar cylinders. I like using Newark as you can add additional insulation to reduce your heat loss for minimal cost. You will need to find a plumber with solid fuel link up system experience.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for taking the time to get back to me. I'll look in to the information you've suggested, the Newark website has a wealth of info on there that I was looking for and will contact Mark or Andrew to find out more closer to the time. The location of the property is in Orkney with Jewsons as the main trade merchants, do you think a similar sort of setup could be achieved via off the shelf parts?

Thanks again!
Cheers,
Ed

Hi try having a look on the gledhill site we used to use a lot solar re thermal stores to combine different heat sources and out puts at different temps.

Mark

Hi Ed,
I would say Jewsons would not supply off the shelf items of a similar nature. Most cylinder manufacturers will deliver anywhere for a fee, just ask when in conversation with them. The most important thing you can do is team up with a local plumber with experience in your requested system. Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

Matt

it's highly unlikely that even a dedicated plumbers merchants will carry stock of everything you need, let alone a builders merchant like Jewson