Owner's thoughts on the new Solar Essence® system.

We decided to put in a solar heating system to increase the value of the property and decrease our personal carbon foot print. Solar Essence® was chosen to do the job because of their ability to provide a system that would both be a water heating system and would augment our house heating system. It wasn't a cheap system and cost us 11,250 GBP. (See Contract) As part of this complicated installation, they installed a new highly efficient condensing boiler. We have been EXTREMELY pleased with our new boiler as it has cut our fuel bills significantly in the short time we have had it.

In layman's terms, the integrated solar water and heating systems works like this. We have solar panels facing in two different directions on our roof to maximize our exposure to the sun. The heat caught in these solar panels goes down to the storage tank where the hot water tank first uses this heat to boost up our domestic water temperature. The heating portion of the system is separate. If additional home heating is required, the liquid in the radiator system will first go to the stored hot liquid tank and pull off as much heat as possible from the liquid heated by the solar panels. If there isn't enough to heat in the stored liquid to totally heat the house, then the new condensing boiler kicks in and heats the house up to the requited temperature. Likewise, if the solar heat is not enough to heat all of our hot water, the condensing boil takes over and augments the solar system. Overall, the concept is great and we look forward to years of trouble free operation.

To be honest, we did have some problems with the installation. They had trouble getting the pressure to stay firm in the tank and when it dropped down low enough the only way we could get hot water was through our condensing boiler. (See one of the Service Repair Logs) It is our hope that after months of visit from Solar Essence®, they have finally worked out the bugs. We have tried to get the warrantee extend as they really didn't get the system fully installed properly until November 2009, but we have yet to convince them to extend this warrantee. They claim in their warrantee that they are committed to service so I am sure it will just be a short time before they honor that commitment and extend the warrantee as it should be. "Warrantee" Being the current owners, we will not stand to gain much in this whole discussion, but be assured, if you are the new owner of this great house, we will do all in our power to see that the warrantee is properly written and that you will be fully protected.

Here is an article about someone with the same system that we have installed. Greenhouse effects: Solar heating

Signed: Brian and Jackie McGee, current owners