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Ok, so currently we have a gas rayburn that gravity heats the hot water tank using its one and only coil. just behind the rayburn in the longe we plan to put a woodburner and would like a back boiler on it to also heat the hot water tank. I'd also like in future to put solar panels on the roof. betwwen the 3 I think we should never need to use the immersion heater and many times the woodburner would remove the need to have the central heating on. I want to do this without changing the hot water tank as this presents a major headache (all the pipes are in front of the tank and a doorway would have to be reomoved before there were enough space to change it. So, my question such is can I have the rayburn a woodburner and solar panels collectivly heat a single hot water tank with only a single coil. I thin the dunsley neatraliser is out as my understanding is that it needs to be 300mm higher than the woodburner and rayburn yet be below the hot water tank and I can't do that (the existing tank is not 300mm above the rayburn outlet. any ideas ?

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paddy wrote:A way around this would be say have the solar panels heat a seperate tank which just feeds the Kitchen sink and washing machine, and leave the range, immersion heater and stove to heat the very hot water needed for showers and baths.

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the flaw in that is that in summer, we would not want the range or the stove on, so would depend on the immersion heater if we wanted to shower/bath (and we do!), and in winter when the rayburn makes more hot water than we need, it would not go to the washing machine.


for the record colhut is my OH (aka 'himself')

red wrote: for the record colhut is my OH (aka 'himself')

well! There you go!

I am also impressed with your use of foreign lanuages. Your tag line "quene fo tipos" - Pronounced - quenay foe teepos - in the Indonesian lanuage Tagalog means - "We're all screwed"!

Nev

The only way I think you could do this would be with a secondary heat exchanger of some sort and I don't think I've seen anything off the shelf that would do the job.
The best solution is as you probably already know a new water tank or even a thermal store. Big job though and last time I looked at thermal stores they weren't cheap:(

Wombat wrote:

red wrote: for the record colhut is my OH (aka 'himself')

well! There you go!

I am also impressed with your use of foreign lanuages. Your tag line "quene fo tipos" - Pronounced - quenay foe teepos - in the Indonesian lanuage Tagalog means - "We're all screwed"!

Nev

and there was me being clever with my 'queen of typos'...turns out I know all the useful sayings in other languages too

Wombat wrote:

red wrote: Your tag line "quene fo tipos" - Pronounced - quenay foe teepos - in the Indonesian lanuage Tagalog means - "We're all screwed"!
Nev

Hmm, the best translation I can find for were all screwed is "Kami powa turnilyo" (We all screw), which has that delightfull air of ambiguity about it that is prevalent in so many electrical applicance instruction books

Ummmm for the record, that was said with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek

Nev

(Hoped I'd picked a language no-one had heard of...........)

did I mention himself can be pedantic. and he was at work so had time to look it up.....

ME Pedantic, pah ! besides I'm not sure that pedantic is strictly acccurate in this particular context

revdode wrote:The best solution is as you probably already know a new water tank or even a thermal store. Big job though and last time I looked at thermal stores they weren't cheap:(

yeah the price isn't the most offputting thing, to remove the tank involves taking out doorways and most of the existing pipework for the tank as all of it was put in after the tank. not to mention the tight squeeze, wall to wall is only 500mm, I could get a tank in there but I'd have to shave some insulation off for some pipes. All in all I'd prefer not to have to do it

colhut wrote:ME Pedantic, pah ! besides I'm not sure that pedantic is strictly acccurate in this particular context

Nev

colhut wrote:not to mention the tight squeeze, wall to wall is only 500mm, I could get a tank in there but I'd have to shave some insulation off for some pipes. All in all I'd prefer not to have to do it

Doesn't sound like a thermal store would be an option either. I have the same problem with space, the only way I could go solar in my current house would be to move the whole system to somewhere else in the house.

Hi
I know when I installed a rayburn at the last house, we fitted a separate tank. We were lucky enough to have space to create a small downstairs bathroom next to the kitchen. This was then fed from the separate tank, leaving the main bathroom running off the main water tank. I realise that this isn't an option for everyone. But if you did have the space then you could put a separate tank for the stove and the solar panels and just use the relevant bathroom.

At the kitchen sink we had two separate taps, one from each tank. It was a bit of a nuisance running the extra plumbing but it was a lot easier and cheaper than replacing the main tank.

I guess you could do the same sort of thing in the bathroom. If the shower is fed from the existing tank, could you run a mixer tap on the bath from the new one? Depending on your bathroom layout, the mixer tap might reach the handbasin as well? (It wouldn't in my current house but it did at the last house).

Zoe