clay filled radiator

[Alison]

Actually it has been quite sunny in this area recently, and the power goes to the national grid

I've been surprised how little sun you actually need to still generate power since we got ours. The modern panels are pretty efficient. Since getting ours we've reduced our electricity bill by more than 50% as well as getting a nice big feed in tarrif every quarter

[Kristen]

has the thermostat set to 85 degrees , 20 higher than the boiler

I don't know much about this, but my plumber told me that the solar heating of our hot water tank was limited to something not much over 60C because we have [back up] electric immersions and they have a safety overheat cut-out - and that works whether they are on, or not - so if the water in the tank gets over X degrees C then they will cut out, and I don't think its a simple "press the button back in" to reset them

Sorry, no idea what X is, but I seem to remember it being "only a bit over 60C"

[snakeshack]

The gas boiler only hears up to 60 degrees the solar dumps excess electricity into the dedicated immersion heater until it reaches 85 degrees at which point any excess goes back to the grid as the temperature has been reached. In practice though the boiler is off during the day and the water in the tank is cool after everyone washing/ washing machine on before work so there is plenty of " space" for the immersion to work


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[Kristen]

Its just the 85 degrees bit that was bothering me - but presumably the immersion's own thermostat will shut it down before its cut-out trips so if the immersun is providing power to the immersion until the tank is at 85C then all that will happen is that the immersion shuts off at, say, 70C and the rest goes into the Grid. So provided the immersun is not programmed to turn something else on when the hot water tank is at 85C (which lets assume will never happen) then the Job's a Good'Un