On Tue, 01 May 2012 18:26:43 +0100, Lieutenant Scott wrote:

Yes, but..... have you ever seen a central heating system with
more
than one fuel?

I have..... saw a house with a gas combi condensing boiler, solar
tubes, wood burner with a back boiler and a heat pump... the lot
was
all interconnected via a thermal store which was then used to heat
the
hot water and provide the central heating.

Similar to what we have now but with an conventional oil boiler and
no heat pump.

Probably took 50 years to pay for itself.

The system has saved us something over £500 in oil this winter (Nov -
April inc). We have paid £400 for logs though. The brief period of
decent weather we had at the end of March indicated that the Solar
Thermal should be able to provide the vast majority of the ho****er
through the summer. So probably another £500 saving on oil and no
logs... Payback 10 years or so, assuming oil stays at the current
price oinkflapoinkflap.

--
Cheers
Dave.