The "Beast"

This is it, the not very pretty chunk of technology that supplies all our central heating and domestic hot water.

It stands out of sight, largely, on a piece of decking behind the garage.

It is a heat exchanger. It has a huge, powerful fan which sucks in the air, and the box contains chemical elements which extract heat energy from the air and transfer it to water. The water is pumped into two very large and heavily insulated storage tanks, in the garage - one for domestic hot water and one for the heating system.

Now do not ask me to explain how heat is extracted from even the coolest air and transferred to water, for I cannot understand the science involved. But it works, and another pay-off (apart from having our gas boiler made redundant and taken away)is that during daylight hours the electricity to power the heat exchange mechanism and pumps comes from our solar panels and therefore is free also.

Just to repeat - it works, we are delighted and the pay-back time on the investment is approx 7 years (at current rates). Seemed like a no brainer!