It's like weird Anyone home?
1. Helitorope Rotating Solar house, Germany
Built in 1994 by solar whizz Rolf Disch - this futuristic lighthouse is in fact the world’s first zero-energy home. Mounted on a pole, the Heliotrope maximizes on solar power by rotating 180 degrees following the sun’s track, allowing rays to stream through the triple-pane windows and continually energize its phalanx of rooftop solar panels. The hand-railing on the roof also doubles as solar thermal tubing heating the home’s water and radiators.
This gaff is even more amazing because even in power-guzzling gadget obsessed 2012 the Heliotrope still remains grid-positive. Where many solar panels are mere eco-decoration the 6.6KWH photovoltaic panels atop this building generate five times the energy it uses. This sparked Disch’s Sonnenschiff solar ‘city’ of houses so super-insulated they can be heated by a single candle or just by the warm-blooded folks that live in them.
