Solar Twin Ltd

Solar Twin Ltd was formed in 2000 following two years of research and development in solar energy. It installs solar water heating systems throughout UK and Ireland, and exports kits worldwide. We number around 20 employees working directly in the business plus numerous component suppliers, installation subcontractors and resellers.

A unique British revolution in solar water heating technology, Solartwin is a reliable, quickly fitted and affordable solar water heating system. It is based on a Scottish engineer's sudden insight on how to avoid the problem of frozen pipes bursting in winter - by just letting them freeze - flexibly! Invented and patented by Kerr MacGregor at Napier University, Edinburgh, and developed in conjunction with Solar Twin Ltd, his innovation exploits recent advances in materials science. Kerr identified highly flexible, thermally conductive pipes to accommodate the problem that water expands when it freezes. This 'freeze-tolerance' eliminates, at a stroke, any need for inefficient heat exchangers and antifreezes, and the numerous costly and power-draining control peripherals normally associated with conventional solar water heating.

Solartwin's unique pumping system uses low speed single pass water flows through the panel, rather than less efficient fast multiple passes. In addition, all of the parasitic mains electricity consumption normally associated with pumps, 24 hour solar controller circuitry and various other peripherals is completely eliminated by using a dedicated low power, variable speed, solar powered pump. Based on new high torque, rare-earth magnet technology, it is powered totally from a small, off-grid photovoltaic module. Solartwin usually takes less than a day to install. Its name comes from combining both solar thermal and solar electricity into one system. Made in UK, the aluminium it contains is bought mainly from Norway because there it can be made with hydro-electricity, rather than conventional fossil fuel power.