Solar Rads for Central Heating

Chealzer

Has anyone any had any experience of using solar radiators in the home? Thinking of installing them in a new build, using a combination of solar & wood pellet boiler for central heating. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

soldsold

General advice here is that they don't work, there is not enough solar energy available when you need the heat during the late autumn, winter, early spring. Most (all?) of the solar system sales guys on here also seem to agree it wont work, which is confirmation enough for me.

imitation

I have been told more or less the same thing as soldsold. It makes sense too really, there is'nt huge amounts of sunlight during the winter, and you`ll be using the heating when there is no light.

If you consider solar purely as a preheater, then there is no real issue.

My solar panels feed a cylinder that is plumbed as to act as a buffer tank which feeds the boiler in the winter, on a good day I can easily get 100 litres to 40-50c so there is less work for the boiler to do.

quentingargan

100L to 50 degrees is about 4.4KwHrs. That's about 28c saved on oil on a good day.

The real benefit of solar is that it provideds domestic hot water at a time of year when the central heating is off. During this time, domestic hot water usually costs a lot more. Q

Viking House

I'm using Solar to heat up the earth under my house to 20-25 degrees for use as a 300m3 inter seasonal heat store. The heat will be extracted using a small heatpump and will run through a fine wire radiator which can deliver 27 degree heat from 30 degree water.