Can You Use A Combi Boiler With Solar Panels

Electric combi boilers have many benefits but the high running costs of electricity see many turn to gas.

Can you use a combi boiler with solar panels.

With combi boilers being so common you d think that the heating industry would have worked out how to combine solar hot water systems with them. Solar hot water panels require a cylinder but it is possible to use them with a combi boiler as gabriel wondrausch of sungift solar explains to yougen. And for those who prefer to read the information here s a summary. They are designed to be supplied with cold water directly from the mains.

If the water in the hot storage tank is as hot or hotter than the temperature i ask the system to supply hot water to the taps i ve got mine set at 50 c then the hot water goes straight to the hot tap. The solar energy available varies from day to day so it is also important to use the boiler to bring the water to a sufficient temperature on days without the contribution of solar energy. Solar heated water needs to be saved up for later use and this is done. Combi combination boilers are the most popular choice of boiler in uk.

A second approach is to send solar pre heated water to the combi boiler. You will find more up to date information on this subject in this blog 28 1 15. 2 sending solar pre heated water to the combi boiler. Solartwin combi boiler solar preheating.

My solar system is connected to my combi boiler and works very well. While some types of combi boilers accept pre heated water others do not. A hot water cylinder is still needed to accumulate the solar heat but it can be a bit smaller because it doesn t need a separate boiler heated volume inside. Historically it was difficult to integrate solar water heating with a combi boiler as by definition combi s heat water instantaneously therefore do not require hot water cylinders.

Running an electric combi boiler with solar pv. If you have a combi boiler an all one unit which supplies hot water on demand directly from the mains you may have difficulty installing a solar thermal system. In addition as a combi boiler supplies hot water on demand it doesn t. However not all homes are connected to the gas network and even for those that are there s a way to make electric boiler running costs lower than gas boilers.

As solar panels heat water across a day and not necessarily when there is hot water demand the need is still there to store solar heated water until you are ready to use it. If the temperature is lower than 50 c then the system adds cold water to the hot on its way to the combi boiler supplying the combi with water at 25 c the combi then heats it up before passing it on to. This video explains how it works. Many people therefore think that if you have a combi boiler then solar thermal system is a no go but this isn t entirely true though.

The issue is that most combi boilers aren t able to accept pre heated water from a solar thermal system. However until very recently there wasn t really a good answer to the question of how to overcome some tricky technical challenges that crop up when you do this. Solar hot water panels require a cylinder but it is possible to use them with a combi boiler. Whether or not your solar thermal system can be matched with the combi boiler will depend greatly on the model of the boiler you have installed.