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Gondwana Green Heat — home

Solar Hot Water

The sun does not send a bill, and a collector uses almost no electricity to catch it.

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Solar thermal

A natural, efficient source of hot water & heat

Solar thermal uses the sun’s energy to heat water or heat‑transfer fluid inside flat‑plate collectors or evacuated tubes. Mounted on a south‑facing roof, these collectors warm the fluid, and when the collector becomes hotter than the cylinder or thermal store, a controller activates a small pump to move that heat into the tank. As long as sunlight hits the collector, the process continues.

Solar thermal uses very little electricity, making it one of the most efficient and cost‑effective renewable technologies available. Although often overlooked in the UK due to limited government support, a well‑designed system can provide most of your domestic hot water in the sunnier months and significantly reduce running costs throughout the year.

Traditionally, solar thermal heats an indirect coil in a domestic hot‑water cylinder, which is fine. We go further: most of our systems connect to buffer tanks or thermal stores instead, which allows the solar energy to support domestic hot water and space heating simultaneously.

Collectors

Three ways to catch it

  • Flat‑plate solar collectors on a ground‑mounted frame in the garden of a stone house

    Flat‑plate collectors

    Simple, robust and cost‑effective; copper pipes absorb heat and transfer it to the cylinder or tank.

  • The copper manifold running along the head of an evacuated tube collector

    Evacuated tube collectors

    Highly efficient glass tubes with sealed copper heat pipes; ideal for cooler climates, and they include mechanical overheat protection.

  • An evacuated tube collector coupled to a wood‑burning boiler stove, with no controls or pump — the water simply thermosyphons

    Off‑grid, with no pump at all

    Solar thermal can run on natural thermosyphon circulation instead of pumps or controls.

It works with everything we fit

One collector, every system

Because it feeds directly into cylinders, buffer tanks and thermal stores, solar thermal integrates with every heating technology we supply — reducing running costs, improving efficiency and lowering the load on heat pumps, pellet systems and biomass boilers.

Hybrid systems

Solar thermal & heat pumps

Solar thermal becomes even more powerful when paired with a high‑efficiency heat pump. In our hybrid systems, solar thermal provides free hot water and contributes to space heating whenever the sun is available, while the heat pump covers the remaining load.

  • Lower running costs
  • Reduced electrical consumption
  • Higher overall system efficiency
  • Smaller heat pumps, because solar does part of the work
  • More stable year‑round performance

Hybrid systems suit homes wanting low‑carbon heating without relying on a single technology.

Sonnenhaus

Can solar heat a whole home?

Yes — and it is already common across mainland Europe, where the approach is known as Sonnenhaus, or “sun house”. It uses a very large thermal store, typically 10,000 to 20,000 litres per house; a large collector array, roughly one square metre per 700 litres of storage; and a high‑performance building fabric, usually to Passivhaus or similar standards.

The array charges the store through the sunnier months, and the stored energy provides space heating and hot water through the year.

Sonnenhaus is possible in the UK, but most homes benefit more from a smaller thermal store combined with solar thermal and a small heat pump or pellet stove. The combinations are flexible, and highly effective.

Talk it through

Supply, design, install, repair, commission, consultancy.

If you would like to explore how solar thermal or a solar heat-pump hybrid could work for your home, we will talk it through.

Get in touch