Everything old is ...
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:28 pm
New again.
I knew that solar thermal has been used in N. Europe for many decades but I didn't know how far back the technology goes nor how popular it was. At the end of WWII Miami had 50% of homes using solar hot water heaters. And Pasadena had about 30% of homes with solar hot water systems. The first invention was in the US (go us) in 1896.
It makes sense. Energy from the sun is free and devices to convert electromagnetic energy to thermal energy and simple, cheap, and reliable.
https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/so ... ology.html
On a related note there are a number of dead-simple and very inexpensive solar air heating units which could easily be commercialized and built into an existing or new home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHk0PX8pbWY
yrs,
rubato
I knew that solar thermal has been used in N. Europe for many decades but I didn't know how far back the technology goes nor how popular it was. At the end of WWII Miami had 50% of homes using solar hot water heaters. And Pasadena had about 30% of homes with solar hot water systems. The first invention was in the US (go us) in 1896.
It makes sense. Energy from the sun is free and devices to convert electromagnetic energy to thermal energy and simple, cheap, and reliable.
https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/so ... ology.html
On a related note there are a number of dead-simple and very inexpensive solar air heating units which could easily be commercialized and built into an existing or new home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHk0PX8pbWY
yrs,
rubato