How Your Thermal Store Works

How Your Thermal Store Works A thermal store can help maximise your home’s energy efficiency while it provides you with hot water and heating too. Sounds great, but how does it work and is it reliable? In very simple terms, a thermal store cylinder retains the heat produced from renewables like wind, water and solar power until it’s needed. Unlike the hot water cylinder in a conventional central heating system, the thermal store doesn’t pass hot water directly to your tap. It uses the excess energy it stored up – from solar panels in the daytime, for instance – to heat the water by passing it through one or more powerful plate heat exchangers. But doesn’t that mean you’re reliant on just one source of heat? What if you don’t have enough stored energy to fuel your entire household? Don’t worry. The typical thermal store water heater is designed to draw energy from more than one different heat source. So as well as saving any excess energy from solar panels, your thermal store can also use heat from a wood powered stove or even a conventional oil or gas boiler. So you need never be without a source of piping hot water!