Many thanks - very encouraging. Now I can get on with finding equipment suppliers - if anyone knows of suppliers here in Holland where I live, or in the area around Toulouse where the project is, I'd be most grateful for details of them.
I'm busy restoring and converting an old farmhouse and I want to install - from scratch - a system for central heating and domestic hot water supply that will run off a sun-boiler in summer (supplying hot water only), a wood-burning stove with back-boiler in winter, and an immersion heater as backup...