We are about to get a heat pump this week so will be removing our 2 solar thermal panels, tank and system. Is there a market for this anywhere? Anyone any experience of people who can do this?
Happy for it to go to a good home rather than being scrapped.
Thanks for any advice.
Anne
Why remove them? I use solar thermal for hot water and heat pump to top up on cloudy days. In winter the solar thermal manages about 20-30°C so the heat pump only needs to heat from there rather than all the way from cold.
I should add that I still have the same cylinder as before I got the heat pump. Gravity fed, not pressurised. If your installer says you need to pay them to replace a perfectly good cylinder then they are either greedy and conning you or they don’t understand how the system functions.
Thanks Tim
We had a few quotes for a heat pump and this was one thing we had been asking. Heat Geeks were willing to plumb in the old system however for a few other logistical reasons, the one we chose was with a company who wouldn’t plumb the old system in because of their 15 year guarantee. We plan to use the roof space to increase our solar PV as we currently only have north facing as our east and west roofs have the solar thermal panels.
At the time of getting the solar thermal we had been turned down for having PV by several companies because of not having a south facing roof.
Our north facing PVs are only 2 years old but with the battery and overnight charging we are getting some benefit. It would be nice to expand our PV to help pay the difference in the electricity price v gas price hike and make the heat pump more economical.
We’ve had the solar thermal for about the same time as our Vaillant gas boiler - about 15 years - with no maintenance at all. They have served us well.
A
I personally imported my solar thermal kit from the Netherlands in 2005. It has been serviced twice.
When it finally fails I’m in two minds as to whether to replace it. It is close to 100% efficient until the water is hot and then 0% the rest of the time. I think I would be tempted to replace it with additional PV, which although inefficient provides general purpose energy.
I would also plumb the return from the HP to the feed formally used for solar thermal to get another pass through the system and extract as much heat as possible.