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Hello, I am in the process of replacing the LPG tank in my property with an ASHP (Mitsubishi Ecodan 14kW). I currently have 2 solar thermal panels which cover all hot water demand for 5-6 months in a year (and I'm planning to keep them). It has been really difficult for me to find a suitable DHW cylinder that (in my limited understanding) would work well with ASHPs and solar thermal panels. Even harder to find options where I'd be able to monitor water temperature at different heights. Ah - the cylinder volume should be 250 litres. I really like the idea of Mixergy tanks because of volumetric heating, the plate heat exchanger (more efficient), the diffusers (for better stratification) and all the data I can get from the tank. However, they are very expensive and, for the ASHP+solar thermal versions, I cannot do volumetric heating (I've been told so by Mixergy). More annoyingly, it seems there is no dedicated solar volume, so it'd be hard to make the most of the already installed solar thermal panels if I want hot water in the morning. The pre-plumbed Mitsubishi cylinder ticked a lot of boxes, but it has 3 pumps and my installer warned me of audible noise (the cylinder is to be installed in a bedroom cupboard). It's also very expensive. I looked at options from Gledhill, Joule, Kingspan, Heatrae Sadia, ... and neither of them looked perfect. Yes, I am likely overthinking here, but would anyone have any advice or experience they could share with me? I haven't ruled out any options yet. Thanks a lot!

With all this talk of cylinders, I thought this piece of research would interest some of you. The research project’s aim was to provide a definitive answer to how effective a copper coil type heat exchanger was, in comparison to that of a stainless steel coil. The results of the report found that using a copper hot water cylinder on an exact like for like specification reduced the heat up time of the water by 28.8% over stainless steel. https://www.mcdonald-engineers.com/sites/mcdonald/files/copper_v_stainless_research_report_-_small.pdf