C
chrisreboot
Hi all, it's my first post, so please be gentle!I currently have a standard gas combi boiler to supply my central heating and hot water.It's about 15-20 years old and I'm told about 70% efficient. So I am now in the process of looking at what the best replacement solution is.Add to the mix the fact that we have recently installed a solar PV system into the house which at times will over-produce energy.My current plan of thinking is to harvest that spare energy by putting it to use in heating water for us. This would involve having some kind of storage cylinder and immersion heater.This sounds a little like old school heating systems (which the house previously had before the airing cupboard had the water cylinder ripped out at the time the combi boiler was installed).However, I am thinking of the following system (and here's where I need critique from experts):1) Replace combi boiler with new more efficient condensing system boiler. (Not sure what I would need exactly, but we have a 4 bedroom house with one bathroom, and 6 kids to wash so our bathing hot water requirement is high!)2) Add a thermal store cylinder that would allow me to heat the water using a mixture of the gas boiler, and the immersion.3) To ensure best energy efficiency, I've seen on the market solar immersion switches that power the immersion when it detects that the Solar PV output is greater than the household consumption (i.e. diverts the excess power from going back to the grid), so the spare electricity I produce would go to heating the thermal store.I also very much like the idea of energy recovery, so something like the Gas Saver Product from Alpha Innovation. It looks good, but I guess that would have to be coupled with one of their own boilers.If there are any other similar pieces of kit out there that fit the bill I'd be happy to hear about them. Preferably an integrated system.Note: at present the solar PV installation is very new and I don't have the full data on over-prodcution to see if this plan is viable, so if anyone has any supporting evidence either way to this, again I'd be glad to hear about it. It could be that our spare output would not justify the installation. However, the fact that these products exist tells me there is mileage in this.I have no experience in this whatsoever, all I know is that I have spare power going to the grid that could lower my gas bill potentially.Am I shooting in the right direction with this kind of setup?Cheers,Chris