Hot water

When we had the new hot water cylinder installed last year we made sure that it had two heating coils, one for heating from the pellet boiler, the other for solar water heating. And finally we've got to a position with work elsewhere in the house being well advanced so we can plan to do the solar hot water installation and use the second coil.

We've investigated a load of solar hot water system suppliers and a while back fixed on Navitron as our preferred supplier. Along with a comprehensive website full of useful information, they supply DIY solar kits at significantly less cost that some of the major solar retailers who want to supply and install systems. And at the end of a long building project we can't afford to pay somebody else to install our solar system so DIY seems to be the best option. So I'm looking forward to seeing exactly how these things go together!

We placed the order last Friday for the solar array (an aluminium frame with 30 glass tubes to catch the heat), pump, pressure system, specially insulated pipework, controller and a few pipework fittings and they were all delivered on Monday. Looks like a fascinating set of bits, but I'm glad it's so easy to get onto our house roof as I wouldn't want to climb a scaffold with the fragile glass tubes.

So the plan with a week off next week followed by a Bank Holiday weekend is that we should have plenty of time to do the solar installation along with a few other major jobs we have planned. Who knows, we may even have some time off!

Whatever happens, the plan is to soon be in a position where we can switch the boiler off fully until the autumn, with all hot water provided by the solar system. I've a bit more reading up to do first as it's going to be important to get the control of the system working correctly. Hopefully everything else will be as easy as it sounds on the Navitron website.