Rotating Solar Home Generates Five Times the Energy It Uses

solar-house
The Heliotrope solar-powered home created by German architect Rolf Disch rotates to follow the sun's rays. The design generates enough energy to fully power the home and feeds surplus energy to the grid, making it the world's first energy positive solar home capable of producing five times the energy it uses.

The cylindrical-shaped Heliotrope has a series of balconies covered with vacuum-solar thermal collectors and features one large 6.6 kW roof solar panel called the Sun Sail that pivots (in addition to the house's rotation) to match the angle of the sun. The pivoting motion allows the Sun Sail to produce about 30 to 40 percent more energy than a static solar panel.

The roof houses a hand railing system that doubles as solar thermal tubing for water heating. The house also features triple-paneled thermal-insulated glass on the side of the house facing the sun so that the light streaming into the home is maximized throughout the day.

The design also includes rain-water collectors and a waste water purification system. Currently, three Heliotrope homes have been built.

via Good Clean Tech

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cost?
written by doh, August 21, 2010

What is the actual cost?
Don't forget the green benefit being out weighed by the carbon foot print to make one of these puppies?

Don't get me wrong...I want 2 of them!

Good Idea But
written by Arrius, August 22, 2010

What works well as an oddity doesn't always work well economically. It'd be a fun house to live in for sure but pretending that you would ever recoup your costs of building this via energy rebates doesn't seem believable.

To me the cool idea here would be a prepackaged system for people to install rotating solar panels for themselves and get 40% more output.

Another rubbish article, Low-rated comment [Show]

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written by Solar Panels, August 23, 2010

The rotating panels idea is definitely a winner and as said would increase the amount of power a home could generate. Regardless, the houses look very cool.

Why rotate
written by Matt, August 23, 2010

All the studies I read in the past say that the cost of rotating a non-concentrating solar, cost more than it is worth. Since PV cell normally are not that directional dependent, an additional 40% sounds really high. So I wonder if their numbers have any real testing behind them. Or if they are marketing department numbers. Now maybe they did magic to reduce the cost of moving them; but that doesn't show how they could have got 40%. Maybe that is compared to facing the East and being vertical.

Fair Call
written by Solar Panels, August 25, 2010

Fair call there Matt, In the case making them rotate was affordable then it's a winner haha.

-3

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written by Lou Donet, August 25, 2010

Wouldn't it be much easier to rotate just the solar rather rather than the whole house? Just wondering........

WHY ISN'T THE CONSTRUCTION COST LAID OUT?
written by JOHN, August 26, 2010

why isn't the construction costs as well as the energy savings listed in the article so we can make our own determination?? anyone can make statements about 40% savings, but unless we can compare apples to apples, we will never know the facts!!
however, i think the houses are cool too!! smilies/wink.gif

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written by Logan Quinn, September 09, 2010

Instead of just quoting other sites who are quoting other sites, how about we just post a link to the original source: http://www.rolfdisch.de/index....L=1&host=2

In answer to the previous question regarding rotating just the panels instead of the whole house, they rotate the house to maximize passive solar gains in winter and minimize solar gain in summer. Such is the value of reading the original source material instead of just reposting of another website's reposting of another website's article.

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written by Broadleigh, September 21, 2010

After reading Rol Disch's website, the reasoning for rotating the house vs. the panels alone was clarified. Half of the house is insulated differently than the other:

"The cylindrical building has on one side triple-paned thermal insulated glass (U-value 0.5) and is on the other side highly thermally insulated (U-value 0.12). Exposed to the sun with the open front’s special windows, the maximum possible energy and light is let into the home. Reverse for the hot summer days, the house will turn its insulated backside to the sun, to keep the home comfortably cool."

Rotating Solar House
written by Carol, September 23, 2010

Here's my question: how much land do you need to have under this house to allow for free rotation, so as to not bump into street lamps, hydro poles, etc? The land cost could add markedly to the overall cost of construction and upkeep.

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re: Carol
written by Paul, October 05, 2010

The building is constructed as a cylinder, so my guess is: no extra ground required. You do need to be reasonably sure that the immediate surroundings will not be built up too much, or the energy efficiency of the building will suffer (especially during the winter when a low sun casts long shadows and would thus be unable to warm up the solar thermal system).

Nice detail from the orgininating website: the motor that drives the column consumes only 120 watt

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written by solar power brisbane, December 28, 2010

I think this is the debate over solar trackers versus static solar racking. The big concern is the required energy to rotate a tracker let alone the maintanance. (To many moving parts).