Thermal Storage Cylinder

Tuathal1

Hello everybody. Im currently in the middle of a renovation& looking for advice on what type of cylinder to install. I have been reading about the Thermal Storage cylinders which seem fantastic.

The house will have 3 thermostatic mixer showers & a large jacuzzi so hot water will be used whole sale as they say! I have fitted a grant vortex condensing boiler & i will be fitting solar panels early next year. Im still unsure whether or not i will fit a stove with back boiler but at this moment in time i wont be.

What i want to know is what cylinder & set up would suit my needs best. I have a young family so i only see hot water demand increasing as time goes by. I have a drilled well & a pumped pressurized system directly from that.

I have seen a system in place in a buddies house which is a 300 litre triple coil tank. Boiler, solar & solid fuel stove to each coil but he says that theres times the 300 litres is emptied with kids, baths & the mixer showers.

My understanding of the Thermal storage is that the 300 litres (or which ever size is got) is not drwn off but instead heats a coil which the cold water travels through. Is this my best alternative for what i imagine a large water demand or would the 300 litre double or triple coil do the same job for me! Only a lot easier on the pocket. Especially as i am unsure whether i'll ever plumb a stove in.

Thanks in advance.

EHP

I'd only go with the thermal store if fitting the stove and going to keep it burning most of the time or if a large amount of solar is being fitted. You could get a 500 liter triple coil tank if you think the 300 wouldn't be enough.

Tuathal1

Im still not sure whether i'll be fitting a stove or not so thats why im not 100% on it. The 500 liter would be an option awrite but i'd rather stick with a smaller size for the location i have for it. I could always increase the solar capacity to suit but with the efficiency of the boiler i have-its not the end of the world to heat the cylinder when required.

Cheers for the response. Have you a thermal storage cylinder yourself?

EHP

Tuathal1 wrote:

Cheers for the response. Have you a thermal storage cylinder yourself?

Had a 1000 liter buffer and a 300ltr cylinder in a previous house. I had 150 solar tubes, wood pellet boiler and a solid fuel boiler all linked to the 1000 liter buffer.
I have also installed a couple of thermal stores with the coil for hot water linked to oil, solar and solid fuel stoves. It works well if the stove is lighting constantly the store acts like a battery charging when the stove is pushing out too much heat for the house so when the heat is called in the morning for rads there is heat in the store already and oil can kick in when there's not enough or until stove is lit again.

Bigus

Here's a potentially cheap way of a diy solution, I believe they use massive ones(>17000 litres) in Austria collecting solar all summer.