patrick.net

That sounds pretty cool.

Have you seen it?

I remember previously, I read about a "Solar Powered Clothes Dryer" in a mail order. The ones that ordered got it shipped to their home. It was a clothesline.

bighorse says

I read about a "Solar Powered Clothes Dryer" in a mail order. The ones that ordered got it shipped to their home. It was a clothesline.

Got one of those. Solar powered. It's wind powered too. Works at night if the wind is blowing at night.

Solar is my business. I just sent you a friend request so that you can send me the details directly.

Never heard of such a thing being built in 1965.

My step-mother-in-law's father George Lof built a solar house in 1957 and it got some press:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lof

I met the guy a couple of times shortly before he died in 2009.

zzyzzx says

Never heard of such a thing being built in 1965.

Hoffman Electronics created a 14% efficient solar cell in 1960, but I don't think it was produced commercially, the only reference I could find for solar cells in use then was for solar power spacecraft and a 242 watt light house installation in 1963 (which was the worlds largest solar array at that time). I think he means it was heated with solar gain, which is basically a lot of insulated glass to take advantage of the heat from the sun and electric base board heat for heat at night. The first Geothermal heating system was installed in a house in 1948, so it not completely unreasonable to assume that this house was one of the first installation of advanced heating methods.

There was a house called Solar 4, built in 1959 in Lexington, MA after the department of Architecture held a contest on solar house design. This house could very well been an experiment in solar construction from some nearby university. Solar 4 was sold to a private owner after 3 years of collecting data. Solar 1 was built in 1939, Solar 2 in 1948, Solar 3 in 1949, Solar 5 in 1978... There were all MIT projects

It's not clear from the OP, but I assume there Is a solar thermal setup for domestic hot water and / or space heating, with a supplemental electrical hearing element. I'm not sure when the solar themal panles were first commercially produced, but they could have been homemade back then - particularly the flat plate design which is not overly complex.

Solar heating would be like heating a box and pumping the heat into your home, not electricity.

EastCoastBubbleBoy says

It's not clear from the OP, but I assume there Is a solar thermal setup for domestic hot water and / or space heating, with a supplemental electrical hearing element.

Yes, that would be my guess too. Solar thermal has been around for a while. I know some people who had solar thermal systems on their house long before it was fashionable, although I don't know anyone who had one in the 60s.

They may have added the ST after the fact, and integrated it with the existing heating system.

EastCoastBubbleBoy says

hey may have added the ST after the fact, and integrated it with the existing heating system.

Yes, that's entirely possible, but OP said it was the original system.

PPete says

and they don't last more than a few years before they start failing.

A few years my ass. Most are guaranteed for 25 years. (80% efficiency) Generally they lose about 2% efficiency a year after that. Most panels will continue to produce electricity for 40 or 50 years. Recently a solar device was discovered in a box that was 60 years old and it still worked. But this really isn't a fair comparison. It's the sun breaking down the panels over time that causes there decay, just like the sun fades paint, damages asphalt, if the solar panels were left in a box, I think they could last several hundred years before they no longer would work. Current prices are around 5 to 6 dollars a watt. There are some claims by some manufactures can produce panels for $1 a watt, but they will not sell them for that, they need to make money after all. I don't think we will see it any lower than $3 a watt anytime soon.

corntrollio says

EastCoastBubbleBoy says

hey may have added the ST after the fact, and integrated it with the existing heating system.

Yes, that's entirely possible, but OP said it was the original system.

All I am suggesting is they may have added on the thermal panels and an external heat exchanger after the house was built, and simply tied it into the original heating system. The OP wasn't 100% clear.

Vaticanus - do you have any more info for us?

Thanks for all the comments.

EastCoastBubbleBoy,

I believe that this IS an original solar system installed when the house was built (or at the very least shortly thereafter). There is definitely electric baseboard heaters in each room. On the south side roof there is a solar panel about the size of a 70 inch tv (maybe bigger but hard to tell for sure from the ground). The electric baseboards have individual controls inside each room. In the hallway is an electric panel, which appears to be the master control for the system. I will try and get more information such as pictures if that would help.

The solar panel is ONLY for heating, not for hot water. There is a standard water heater on the opposite end of the house that supplies the place with hot H2O.

thanks for all your input!

re: geothermal heating. The Warm Springs district in Boise, ID has had geothermally heated houses since the 1890s.

Wow. Needless to say I've never seen one that old. Would love to hear more about it though. Does the system uses an inverter, or are the electric baseboards running off of DC power?Is there any battery backup or similar?