Solar water and plumbing

[bandk]

Hello and forgive me!

I have a home in Spain and I am having trouble communicationg what I require to the locals so I am turning to you guys for help.


I have a combi boiler fuelled by bottled gas, the only kind available in Spain!, the water supply is pump fed from a 1000litre storage tank. The only thing this combi does is supply domestic hot water to the hand basins and showers in the house.

Now what I want to do is install a solar water system on the roof, you must have seen them while on holiday! These systems feed to a holding tank and then supply the domestic system via gravity I believe. Anyway I want to keep the combi boiler obviously, the weather in Spain is no better than the UK in winter, So from October to March the combi is definately needed. But I also want to pipe the solar system into the same network. This is where I am having trouble, the Spanish plumbers don't understand I want to combine the two systems, with them its either, or.

So is there some type of valve that needs to be installed into the existing pipework that allows the solar water into the system and keeps the combi turned off until a certain temperature. Does it go into the pipework before or after the combi? etc etc.

The more info you can supply the easier it will be for me to explain what I need. Even the name of the parts required would be good, I could possibly source them in the UK and give them to a plumber to put in for me.

Sorry its long winded but I thought the more info I could give the better an answer I will get.

 

[GQuigley67]

you would need a hot water cylinder to be able to have solar panels with a combi i believe, solar panels heating the cylinder with the boiler backing up the solar panels and keeping water above 60 degrees, and we do get solar panels in britain they are on the rage over here but i think they will be superseeded in the future so dont think im going to bother with them anymore.

 

[Gordon T]

You say you have a combi? A combi gives heating AND hot water. Where do you think the word combi comes from? Check what boiler you have first.

 

[GQuigley67]

Gordon he is wanting to save on the cost of gas i presume

 

[bandk]

Its a combi but only supplies dometic hot water as the pipework for rads is installed but no rads are in place, all the pipework is capped off for those.

Heating to the house is supplied by 80.000btu log burner, and yes we do burn our way through several tonnes of logs in a winter!

 

[Gordon T]

Ok. You will need a holding tank for the hot water. If you connect the existing gravity system up to the pumped system you will find yourself in hot water, literally. The pumped side of it will overcome the gravity side of it. You cannot connect both gravity and pumped into one system, although over there, anythings possible.

 

[gravytrain]

some combis are solar ready and will accept pre heated water
if not according to the info on the net you fit a mixing valve to limit the temp of the
incoming water so the boiler doesnt cycle


http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/plumbing-forum/23365-solar-heating-combi-boiler.html

 

[markfxy]

A lot of solar panels in Spain have a cylinder attached to the top of the panel on an A frame all you need are isolation valves to isolate either the solar or gas water heater. Which part of Spain are you.

 

[bandk]

thanks for the advice. The solar system does indeed have a cylinder or holding tank mounted to it with a capacity of 150 litres. We are near as damnit on the Costa Blanca, although region wise it would be Murcia, about 45 minutes from Alicante.

So the isolation valves you mention, are they automatically switched or would we need to do that manually? By the way we have plenty of space in the utility room to mount a second hot water storage tank (suplementary to that mounted o the solar unit) if required.

 

[markfxy]

Ring Premier heating Costa Blanca ask for Terry they'll sort it for you.