Solar Thermal

A Solar PV system uses panels (usually called ‘modules’) that generate electricity in the presence of sunlight. The amount of electricity produced depends on the intensity of the sunlight. Solar thermal, on the other hand, uses sunlight to heat a fluid. In the case of Grant solar collectors, it heats a glycol/water solution within the collector. This heated fluid is then circulated from the collector to a cylinder where the heat is transferred to produce hot water.

Solar thermal collectors cleverly extract the free energy from the sun and transfer this energy to heat a home's hot water system. The collector features serpentine pipework beneath the top layer of glass, through which a special solution flows - as this fluid passes through the collector, the fluid is heated up and then is transferred away from the collector to then heat up water stored within a cylinder which will fulfil hot water demands at the tap. Solar thermal collectors are efficient and an eco-friendly solution for heating domestic hot water, utilising energy from the sun and reducing a home's reliance on fossil fuels.

Many people believe that solar collectors only work in the summer, however this type of free energy is available throughout the year. From May to September, solar thermal could produce 100% of the energy required for heating your domestic water. Grant collectors operate not just with direct sunlight, but also diffused sunlight, so they even work on cloudy days.

A Grant solar thermal system requires a cylinder with a solar coil. In many cases this will be a ‘twin coil’ cylinder with both a boiler coil and a solar coil. This may well mean that your existing hot water cylinder will have to be replaced by a suitably sized twin coil cylinder to maximise the performance of your solar thermal system.

Yes, solar thermal collectors can be installed as part of a new heating system or they can be added to an existing heating system. Read more about Grant Solar Thermal Systems here.