EnergyStore Bio Quattro thermal stores, renewable heating

EnergyStore Bio Quattro thermal stores are made specifically for combining wood or pellet burning boilers with a solar thermal hot water system. Bio Quattro thermal stores come with two solar coils (1 in 300 litre), enabling it to choose where to feed in the solar heat based on the temperature of the solar panels and the temperature of the water in the tank. This achieves fast storage of useable hot water in the top of the tank when conditions are right, and the ability to pull the last little bits of heat from the solar before it returns to the roof. This can be controlled by special solar controllers or using thermostatic valves.

Half way down the EnergyStore Bio Quattro thermal store there is a stratification baffle which helps stop the water in the tank circulating. This is important as the top of a thermal store full of 80ºC water with the rest at 20ºC is far more useable than the whole tank at 35ºC.

For domestic hot water there are 2 coils installed, one at the bottom of the tank, one at the top. The water in the bottom of an accumulator tank should be much cooler than the water at the top (a sign of good stratification). The cold mains water supply is run through the first coil at the bottom of the tank - which raises the water to this lower temperature, typically 30-40 degrees. The water then goes to the top coil where it is brought up to temperature. Because it was preheated in the bottom coil less heat is taken from the very hot water at the top of the tank which helps to maintain that nice hot water at the top = good stratification.

We have a range of immersion elements available, in 1 kW, 2kW and 3kW.  We also stock a combined 1kW and 3kW immersion. These are ideal for use with PV systems because the Feed In Tariff assumes that you consume 50% which in actual fact you usually do not. So you may have either an intelligent controller which diverts 50% of the electricity produced, storing it as hot water in the thermal store, or a more simple setup using a timer to achieve the same end. For a 4kW system the 1kW and the combined 1kW and 3kW immersions are most suitable BioSolars are insulated using high density polyurethane foam and sizes range from 300lt to 3000lt, with much larger, bespoke, tanks available on request.

• Low heat loss.
• Solar coils top and bottom (apart from the 300lt which only has 1 coil at the bottom).
• Domestic hot water heat exchange coils at the top and bottom which provide mains pressure hot water using a pre-heat and top up coil.
• Each tank has tappings positioned to allow you to connect your biomass boiler with extra tappings in commonly used places for biomass boilers to give flexibility. There are also tappings for conventional boilers and of course several to provide heat to the heating system.
• The tappings are flush with the surface of the tank which means that it is an easy job to connect up, less parts are needed, and less time taken.
• The EnergyStore Bio Quattro legs are adjustable and removable to make it simpler to get the tank into its final position.
• There are several dry probe pockets for the temperature probes of controllers and for temperature gauges.

Even if you are not planning to incorporate solar thermal to your system right now it can make sense to opt for a solar enabled tank to give you the extra flexibility in the future.