Solar System

The old farmhouse had gone through a lot of heating and domestic hot water changes in its three and a half centuries of life: first there was the big central chimney with fireplaces in each room where a pot of water would be heated for bathing, then a coal fired boiler and companion coal fired water heater followed by an oil fired boiler with a coil in it. The coil was there to take the heat from the boiler’s water through its walls to make the house’s hot water, a system with limits, the worst of which was the boiler’s water had to be kept at a temperature high enough to supply hot water whenever a tap was opened. This meant the oil burner fired every 20 minutes, winter and summer, keeping the boiler hot, running down the oil tank and running up the bills.