Right folks, last year we had a new main pressure (unvented?) HW tank fitted as part of a major reburb.
I'm now thinking about adding solar panels, but I'm not keen on changing the HW tank.
I know that a traditional solar system uses a tank with two feeds – one from the CH and one from the Solar panels.

Is there any reason why you couldn't just use a single inlet with valves to switch between the panels and CH?

In my head I have an elegant solution using temperature sensors in panels to switch the control valves.
I'm guessing that one issue could be the use of antifreeze in the panels? Would that bugger up the HW loop from the CH?

Whaddya think?

>I'm guessing that one issue could be the use of antifreeze in the panels? Would that bugger up the HW loop from the CH?

Sealed pumped system in the solar loop with a heat exchanger transferring heat into the cylinder loop ?

Sealed pumped system in the solar loop with a heat exchanger transferring heat into the cylinder loop ?

But could I run the CH loop pump, without the boiler on?

I think the antifreeze issue may be a bit of a deal breaker 🙁

There is a thing i've heard referred to as a "hot rod" it is essentially another heat exchanger loop that uses your immersion heater boss,not as efficient as a proper full loop in the cylinder but may be more appealing than £1000 for a 210 litre unvented cylinder.

hug – I was wondering about something like that – thanks.

More googling required!

you could use one of those, but you would need to connect it to the boiler side and use the solar on the other coil. However I would change the cylinder as the solar coils are specifically designed for solar panels and will be far more efficient