One of Northern Ireland’s oldest family businesses is still leading the way in its field with a new invention that is set to revolutionise the global solar water heating industry.

Belfast company Willis Heating & Plumbing Co Ltd, established by William Willis in 1887, is most famous for the invention of the Willis Immersion Heater which became an essential feature of virtually every household in Northern Ireland during the 1960s and 1970s.

Now the company, under the leadership of managing director and fourth generation family member John Willis, has developed a new solar water heating system that it claims will be the biggest industry breakthrough since the Willis Immersion Heater – the Willis SolaSyphon.

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The Willis SolaSyphon represents a major change in the way that solar thermal panels produce hot water. Managing Director John Willis stated: "We came up with the idea of using the principals of thermosyphonic action to create a simple ‘bolt-on’ heat exchange unit, similar in concept to the immersion heater, which would heat the water in a customer’s existing cylinder and remove the necessity to replace the hot water storage cylinder.

"It can be used in new installations or retro-fitted to existing installations and starts producing usable hot water within minutes of sun shining on the solar panel, rather than several hours using existing technology."

He added: "As with all the best inventions, it was to us a simple idea and within two days we had constructed a working prototype which in terms of performance actually exceeded our expectations."

(CL)