On 16 Aug 2006 15:21:30 GMT, Huge wrote:

Solar hot water, eh?

How much did that set you back?

I haven't got the final bill yet. The solar array is costing me £950. I'll
probably be spending another £1500 on controls and a heatbank. I'm being
difficult by wanting to take heat from every possible source, that's an LPG
boiler, immersion heater, back boiler and the solar array. The array is 5.6
m^2. You can get the same number of tubes for as little as £395, but those
are 47mm and the ones I got are 58mm.

For the immersion heater I'm considering having a wind generator and using
a couple of the 12 or 24volt heaters offered for use aboard boats. If not
those then a 240V wind generator. I'll have to check if the scaffold tube
used to take a small marine generator is going to be up to the job of
supporting a 1.5 or 3kW generator.

At the height of summer the array will probably produce much more heat than
I need so I'm planning to have a radiator outside the house as a diversion
load. I had thought to divert the heat into a heat store of some kind, and
since we're installing a rainwater catchment tank I wondered about using
that. The plumber advised against it, he thinks it will be breeding ground
for legionella if it is heated.

I'll check with someone more knowledgeable than a plumber and if it is a
really cack idea, I'll consider putting in a swimming pool. It's on the
cards anyway to have a half-buried swimming pool, possibly an infinity pool
on the terrace overlooking the mountains.