Solar thermal panels complete waste of time and money.
You haven't said the size of the house. But I would stick with a combi.
You'll soon get bored with a solid fuel stove in the kitchen.
Interesting perspective - thank you. It's a two bedroom terraced house.
The reasoning for the solid fuel stove and solar thermal is that all the rooms bar the kitchen have backup heating capabilities (i.e., the original fireplace) in case of central heating failure. I am trying to decorate in so far as I sensibly can in a style commensurate with when the house was built (1890s), so a nice kitchen range would solve both of those problems. Then I realised that this would not provide backup hot water heating, and saw that some kitchen ranges had hot water heating, then, looking further, found that some had enough capacity to run the central heating (which was how the few Victorian homes that had central heating did it, through a boiler in the kitchen range). I then saw that it would help to have a hot water accumulator tank because the range will not be burning the whole time, which could then accommodate solar thermal, which would also solve the problem of the range being far too hot to be used in the summer (especially in a small kitchen). The solar thermal installation could be of the PV-T type that also has electrical generating capabilities, which could also come with a battery backup system that would allow central heating pumps to run during a power outage.
Perhaps it's all a wild goose chase, but I don't want to rule it all out without knowing in more detail what is actually involved. Anything that reduces reliance on Russian gas at this time seems worthwhile considering.