Posted By: ringi

Posted By: Paul_BI have a Akvaterm 750L Solar Plus thermal store. It has 100mm of insulation and a baffle plate to aid stratification. The manufacture states heat loss of 91W. I have temperature sensors at four levels feeding into a home automation system. The stratification works well and the top stays at a fairly constant between 60 and 52 degrees the bottom varies over a wider range going as low as 35 degrees. It can supply two showers simultaneously and a third straight after without any discernable temperature loss and water at mains pressure. The space heating needs a bit more work on the controls but this is on hold until the solar panels are commissioned.

Paul

If you only care about DHW, you will get about as much useful DHW form a "normal" DHW tank of half this size.
(The issue is the amount of heat that sits in the bottom of the Akvaterm, a normal DHW tank will be close to 15c at the bottom when providing output.)

My heating upgrade is taking place in stages as funds allow. The thermal store was first to allow for other elements to be added later, 750L was as large as would fit and chosen to buffer in the summer for cloudy days. Space heating is on the to-do list as the gas boiler is still doing too much heating at the moment.