Thermal Storage

Gledhill manufacture a wide range of cylinders incorporating Thermal Storage technology, providing mains pressure hot water, suitable for use with a range of heat sources.

Why use a thermal store

Alternative energy fuel sources are typically low grade, inherently unpredictable and are often available in plentiful supply but not when the heat energy is needed! A thermal store provides the means to harness the energy when it is available for later conversion into both hot water AND heating.

Being open vented, they provide a simple and inherently safe way to produce high-performance mains pressure hot water. So the householder can enjoy the comfort and luxury of a mains pressure system produced from alternative energy sources.

The alternative energy feeds into the thermal store which is also the water that circulates around the heating system. This means that the energy available from solar panels or a wood burning stove, for example, can be used to provide energy into the heating circuit to reduce the use of fossil fuel based boilers, and hence household running costs.

It is very problematic and inherently unsafe to connect wood burning stoves or other uncontrolled heat sources to an unvented cylinder, and not easily possible to combine alternative energy heat sources to provide energy to the heating circuit, hence the unique advantages of a thermal store.

Torrent MultiFuelStore

The Torrent MultiFuelStore is the ideal product to use as the heart of an alternative energy system as it will take energy input not only from a conventional boiler but also from a wide variety of alternative energy sources, including but not limited to:

  • solar panels
  • wood burning stoves and other uncontrolled heat sources
  • ground or air source heat pumps
  • electricity from renewable or low carbon sources

If the system is configured appropriately the heat from the alternative energy source will be available for both hot water AND heating. This is only possible with a thermal store such as the Torrent and is not possible with an unvented cylinder where you will only get an alternative energy contribution to the hot water.

The Torrent range comes with a full array of tappings as standard so that, for example, a wood burning stove or solar panels can be added as an upgrade to the property at a later stage and the hot water cylinder will be ready to work with it.

The Torrent range is insulated to a very high standard with our revolutionary Envirofoam insulation which has an Ozone Depletion potential (ODP) of zero and an industry leading low Global Warming Potential of 0.7. The insulation incorporates Polyol which is derived from Rapeseed oil - a fully renewable resource. The 350 and 450 models currently use 60mm of Rockwool insulation which is a high performance insulation and also HCFC free.

The Torrent range is manufactured from copper, a fully recyclable resource, and made at one of our nationwide network of super depot manufacturing units local to the customer, meaning we are not shipping a heavy cylinder full of fresh air half way around the country! We think this makes perfect environmental sense and makes the Torrent the lowest carbon-footprint alternative energy cylinder available in the UK. They are also fully recyclable at the end of their extensive working life. In addition, where a copper cylinder is being replaced as part of the installation of a Torrent we are willing to take it back and provide a credit for the scrap copper which will then be recycled.

Other models incorporating thermal storage technology

The PulsaCoil BP is perfect for apartment situations where there is only an electric heat source available with the installation being simpler and the siting of the cylinder more flexible, as it does not need to be near an outside wall for the discharge pipe as with unvented systems. The PulsaCoil BP Solar also offers the opportunity to utilise a solar input where electricity is the only other energy input. Due to the fact that the cylinders are open vented and not affected by pressure within the store, there is no need for an annual safety check.

You can also utilise thermal technology in conjunction with a gas or oil boiler to provide both heating and hot water, through the BoilerMate BP. This system is easy to install and can be fitted to existing systems as well as new build situations.