need help with my heating and hot water solar

[caseyj]

hi every one< new to this site so please stick with me

i have an open vented heating/hot water water system in my house, there is a hot water tank in the airing cupboard on ground level, a gas baxi boiler in the on suite in the master bedroom which is in the basement conversion, then in the past a solar system has been added, for which there is a seprate hot water tank in the attic conversion with expansion tank on it, 4 large panels on the roof, in the airing cupboard is my controls to operate the boiler timings, a switch panel with temp read out which tells me the temp in the solar tank and has two light red and green (tells me when the solar is charging) below that is a switch labaled DOMESTIC/SOLAR i have to switch this depending what tank i want the water for hot water or heating to come from

i am looking at putting in a small wood burner with back boiler and would like to link the lot together and make it as automatic as poss, is there a way of doing this ? without having to pull my house apart to much. lol , im run my own building company and am fairly ok with plumbing, any help gratefuly recieved

 

[Toddyplumb]

Search Dunsley Neutraliser and look at the systems and controls on there

 

[diesel_ltd]

mate better to get an expert to do this job or could end in tears

 

[caseyj]

i searched Dunsley Neutraliser and found the part, doing the plumbing is no problem but need to know the lay, ie tieing my solar set up in aswell as my normal gas boiler due to the fact i have 2 hot water tanks and have to switch a switch depending what one i want to pump from, would like to replace that switch with something automatic, any pointers, would rather not pay a plumber as they charge a lot of money, cheers for info so far

 

[caseyj]

spoke to the people who fitted the solar setup many years ago ,asked about having one tank instead of a seperate one for the solar, this would do away withe the solar/domestic switch and make it all automatic, downside is they say i would need to replace my main downstairs tank with a dual coil, (lots of ££) , i have found a retro fit coil which replace the immerision in the top of my tank with a second coil to enable solar to be added to that tank, would i really need a triple coil? to be able to add the log burner back boiler ? or can this be added in on a dual coil tank? many thanks for all help

 

[EXCEL]

To create what you are trying to do a dunsley or a thermal store is the only way ...you will also need to look at sending heat elsewhere also as you cannot regulate multifuel appliances ...thus needing reverse pipe stats to send heat to other areas ...ie Heatlinks (radiators)...this also means galvinised tanks as previous experice tought me that these are sustainable to high tempreatures to find someone capable to do this is hard ...to find someone capable and who does it efficently is like finding rocking horse poo .... also you need have these reguarly maintained ...by and i repeat by someone who knows what they are doing ....Good luck ..my friend ...i,m here if you need any more knowledge .....Example I fitted Gas aga, Gas boiler and multifuel stove ..to a thermal store ..and was very invigorating let me say and now I do solar ...which is alot simpler

 

[moony]

thermal store or a dunsley like excel says - but honestly mate your better leaving this sort of set-up to a professional - i dont doubt for one minute you can join pipes etc - but this is a really complicated system you require to set up. anti boil stats - heat leak rad ont the solid fuel primaries, r type neutriliser with a honeywell st699b 1002 programmer, pipe stat on the primary from solid fuel burner so it makes when hitting 60 degrees, a proper twin coil cylinder whether it being unvented or vented - a lot to it mate. like excel says these are hard for someone who knows what theyre doing to instal nevermind someone whose not a heating engineer (no offence mate)

 

[maul]

its a minefield of complications.
even if you get the pipework all working correctly you would need to carefully manage when your gas system turned on and off. there would be problems with excessive heat if it turned on and heated your tanks up then you put the log burner on with nowhere to put that excess heat.solar also needs somewhere to put its heat and once that is full then you can dramatically shorten the collectors lifespan through constant overheating.
anything with a logburner in is not automatic. if you understand all this and are prepared to do the constant management then you could get savings on your fuel bills
a large thermal store is probably the way you need to go so you have a big enough buffer to store any excess heat. that will take up quite a bit of space and be very heavy

 

[ecowarm]

Choosing the right solar controler and comissioning correctly, instructing the customer on their new system is part of the service.

The solid fuel boiler in this situation would be in use when the solar can't provide heat, but the solar controler can still control the gas / oil boiler when needed.