Selecting the right unvented hot water cylinder

Direct or indirect?

Direct

In a direct cylinder, it’s the cylinder itself that heats the hot water using an immersion heater. This can be a solution for getting hot water if a property doesn’t have access to a gas or oil.

Indirect

An indirect cylinder, on the other hand, has an external heat source as its primary heat source. This could be done either a traditional boiler or much more efficiently and eco friendly using either a heat pump or solar thermal system.

How does it work?

A coil inside the cylinder is heated from the external source and passes this heat over to the water in the cylinder. This water inside the coil re-circulates through the coil but never comes in contact with the water used for the domestic hot water.

An indirect cylinder also has an immersion heater as a backup heat source.

What size of a cylinder do I need?

Picking the right size cylinder can be confusing. Too small and you won't have enough hot water in your home? Too big cylinder means you will use too much energy heating all that water.

Here are Joule's recommendation on how to choose the right size CyclonePlus cylinder:

If space is an issue, Joule also offers horizontal cylinders as an option. You could choose a next-generation pre-plumbed cylinder from Joule, with a sleek design that doesn't require that much room.

Joule CyclonePlus cylinders are now manufactured in the United Kingdom which makes them very competitive and improves availability and delivery times.