Solar with heating support

Hello, we are currently planning our new building. We are installing a gas heating system with solar support for hot water. Would you also use solar for heating support? Would you also connect a water-bearing fireplace?

No and no, both completely uneconomical... not profitable or only barely after about 30 years, and by then replacement is probably due again long before.

With solar heat, you have too much in summer and don’t need the heat for heating support anyway, in autumn and winter you have too little or none at all.

With my old solar system, on good summer days I have to cool down my 300-liter storage tank at night through the collectors, wasting energy. That means, even with a large buffer storage, you have an excess of heat for heating support in midsummer when you don’t need it. In autumn and winter, you can hardly count on any heat yield from the solar system and thus from the buffer storage.

My recommendation: consider photovoltaics and a battery storage system. Tesla, Bosch, and others are working hard to develop and bring powerful, affordable home battery storage systems to the market.

Photovoltaics provide benefits all year round.

Hello, we are currently planning our new build. We are installing a gas heating system with solar support for hot water. Would you also use solar for heating support?
Would you also connect a water-carrying fireplace?

I missed the question.
Next spring/summer I will treat myself to a fireplace or water-carrying fireplace. As a man from the GW field, I think that the water-carrying fireplace with buffer storage is worthwhile for me because I get the components cheaply through trade and install them myself. In your case, I would advise you to have the project calculated and planned by a heating/fireplace specialist and then decide.

Hello,

When deciding on a solar thermal system, it should be used both for heating support and hot water preparation. It is true that unfortunately the sun shines most intensely during the summer, when heating is not needed, and vice versa. Nevertheless, there is still a need for hot water in the summer that the solar thermal system can cover, so the heating system can remain off and does not need to be started for hot water production (saves energy).

When the first cold days arrive or the average temperature drops, heating support manages to delay the point at which the heating system must be started (saves energy). Eventually, it gets cold enough that the heating system must run, but on sunny days, the solar thermal system can preheat the heating water so that the heating system does not have to heat the water as much, the same applies to hot water. The problem in winter is that the sun shines fewer hours and less frequently. The solution is to maximize the yield from the little available sun through a larger collector system and to buffer the collected heat in appropriately sized storage tanks.

Therefore, do not install only the legally required system size on the roof, but a sufficiently large system. Here, the specialist engineer for technical building equipment or the energy consultant can assist. The additional costs for x sqm more collector area are minor relative to the total investment.

Best regards, Erik

Only that the investment costs for a large system with heating support are never recouped by the savings during the transitional period and in summer the legally required size without heating support is sufficient.

A modern heating system should not simply cost as much money as possible and be a regulatory nightmare... but exactly the opposite... oh yes, it should also be economical... and unfortunately, heating support through solar thermal immediately falls out of consideration...

Best regards, Realist