My boiler-man tells me that most or all combi boilers can equally be switched to operate as conventional boilers if you have a storage tank set up, which you'd need if you had solar-thermal installed, so I'm not quite clear on how that distinction works. Possibly if you have a tank for the solar-thermal, but still have the boiler set to heat water as it's used... but that doesn't make any sense... unless there's a thermostat on the combi-heater to switch it on if the piped water is below a certain temperature...
Hmmm. Anyway, thanks for mentioning the subsidy. My boiler's coming to the end of its useful lifem and I've been considering replacing it with a system that incorporates solar thermal in any case. Unfortunately my roof faces more NW-SE than N-S, so I might have to have panels both sides to make it worthwhile. Still, the subsidy will help the justification nicely.
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Date: 2011-09-30 09:33 am (UTC)Hmmm. Anyway, thanks for mentioning the subsidy. My boiler's coming to the end of its useful lifem and I've been considering replacing it with a system that incorporates solar thermal in any case. Unfortunately my roof faces more NW-SE than N-S, so I might have to have panels both sides to make it worthwhile. Still, the subsidy will help the justification nicely.