Thermal stores

A thermal store is a way of storing and managing thermal energy until it is needed. It can provide fresh mains pressure hot water and can supply your heating system (radiators, underfloor etc.). It is possible to combine the thermal store with all types, and more than one type of heating appliance, including existing or new oil, gas, or biomass boilers, wood boiler stoves, solar thermal installations and also heat pumps.

SOLUS II Thermal Store

We supply and install the SOLUS II thermal store by Consolar, this comes in a range of different sizes and integrates with all types of systems. It uses Consolar’s patented thermo-siphon heat exchanger and chimney effect, which is cleverly designed with heat exchanger pipes with a "finned" surface to ensure the greatest possible surface area for heat to be exchanged through without destroying the stratification.

The chimney effect makes sure that the heated water is delivered directly to the top of the tank giving priority to domestic hot water delivery.

Insulation

The SOLUS II has a very high-performance patented insulation system ensuring heat loss is kept at an absolute minimum. The store can have a foil coating which significantly reduces radiation loss and additional air pockets between the container wall and the insulation increase this effect further. The EPS foam that it uses has a good insulation value and is ecologically superior to soft and hard PU foams. The specially developed angled connections serve as heat retarders so that micro circulation and the resulting heat loss at the connection, is reduced to a fraction. This means that if the water is not used, the store will hold its heat for several days.

Special Stratification Technology

The SOLUS II has an excellent stratification system which simply put means maintaining the hottest water at the top of the tank and the cooler water at the bottom, with as little mixing as possible between the different temperature layers. This ensures rapid availability of solar heat and means that the boiler doesn’t need to fire up as often therefore saving more energy, carbon and money.

Hot Water

As hot water is demanded, mains cold water passes through a heat exchanger inside the top of the thermal store heating it before it reaches your taps. This method removes any risk of legionella as the water is heated quickly and in a continuous flow, it also means the water inside the thermal store does not require pasteurisation as it is only circulated inside the store or round your heating system.

Solar Thermal

A Solar Thermal System can be connected to a heat exchanger at the bottom of the tank to heat the cool water, this is where it is most effective because of the greater temperature difference between the two fluids. Internal pipework ensures this heat is guided to the top of the tank where it can be used immediately. This means that domestic hot water can be drawn off within minutes of the solar system working, thereby shutting down the boiler much earlier than some conventional buffers.

The Solus II is supplied in a range of sizes from 500ltrs to 2200ltrs and a range of different specifications to suit the specific application.

Boilers

The boiler(s) deliver heat to the centre and top regions of the tank. More than one boiler can be employed, a typical installation might include a wood boiler stove and a gas boiler or a batch burning log boiler.

The water within the store is circulated around the heating system and boilers in a sealed system, therefore only sealed system boilers can be used. Newer high efficiency gas, oil, wood logs and pellet stoves fitted with boilers such as the Lenius are ideal.

Environment

The Consolar system leads the field in the independent consumer goods test for system efficiency and it was also found to have the shortest energy payback period – which is the amount of time it takes for the solar thermal system to produce the amount of energy that was used in its manufacture. This is confirmation of the very efficient use of materials and the high-performance capability of the system.