combined heating hot water systems

[maxsan]

Has anyone had a combined solar/fiuol heating/hotwater system fitted and, if so, does it work well? Also anyone know of good manufacturers of these type of systems. This is the only option open to us so please no advice about underground systems etc.

[Alex H]

We are in the process of having our oil fired bolier adapted to be able to heat hot water. The reservoir to be fitted will also take an input from solar panels to heat the water when the sun shines and the controller will decide when to top up the heat from the boiler. As we don't live in France we are not yet installing the solar panels (cost a little too high at the moment!), so I can only tell you of our visit to the engineers.

The guy who is fitting it runs the same system in his own house. He has 4sq m panels over the roof of his garage and on an overcast day in March, the tank water temperature was 68 degrees C. You could not hold your hand under the water coming out of the hot tap. A good enough demonstration for me to put the system in !