Combined Solar Thermal Storage
Wrexham Solar Thermal is bringing new and innovative solar thermal technology to the marketplace through a new design, reducing the total cost of solar thermal energy, reducing carbon footprint of manufacture & installation of Combi Solar Thermal units. It operates directly off mains pressure. Hot water is stored within the collector on the roof in a series of double
walled glass vacuum tubes. The tubes act both as the collector and storage which greatly simplifies the whole system yet it remains compact - little bigger than a comparative collector. The compactness is achieved by storing water at a higher temperature and diluting down with cold water. With 10 tubes, the footprint of one unit is 2 square meters, and provides up to 120 litres of shower hot water. Wrexham Solar Thermal's Solar-Combi can operate either on its own or together with a hot water on demand system such as a gas combi boiler. When the water is above the required user temperature the water flows directly to the use, e.g. shower or tap. When the solar hot water temperature drops below a certain defined temperature the flow is diverted through the gas combi boiler which fires to top-up the water temperature. There are competing solar thermal technologies that claim to be solar-combi but if you read through you will find they also require a tank to be installed, increasing the cost and carbon footprint. They also require the use of an electric pump, there is no pump required in Wrexham Solar Thermal's Technology. The system has a unique overheating protection system, (patent pending) which is passive requiring no electrical supply or pump. A prototype is installed and operating and producing hot water throughout the year sicne 2012.
