THE HELIO THERMICS SOLAR-HEATED AND -COOLED HOUSE

Image Gallery ABOVE LEFT: Translucent panels allow sunlight to pass into the black-painted attic area. ABOVE RIGHT: A closer look at the solar water preheater.

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IS THIS THE WORLD'S FIRST COMPETITIVELY PRICED SOLAR-HEATED AND -COOLED HOME THAT QUALIFIES FOR FEDERAL HOUSING AUTHORITY AND VETERANS ADMINISTRATION BACKED FINANCING?

Until just a few weeks ago anyone who wanted to live in a solar-heated and -cooled house found the construction of that dwelling to be pretty much a do-it-yourself affair. (There simply weren't any "ready-made" sun-powered homes on the market.)

And who could really afford the expensive construction of a custom, one-of-a-kind solar-tempered building anyway? For that matter, who (other than the local banker's favorite grandchild) could even obtain financing for such a "crazy" idea? Who indeed?

COMES THE DAWN!

Some folks down in Greenville, South Carolina (folks who go by the name of Helio Thermics, Inc.)—however—have now changed all that. They've changed it by designing, building, and making readily available [1] a "standard" solar-heated and -cooled dwelling that [2] is very competitively priced and [3] is among the very first—possibly the first—such structures to qualify for both FHA and VA mortgage insurance.

As impressive as the name (Helio Thermics, Inc.) may sound, this threefold "breakthrough" in the use of solar energy wasn't made by any overstaffed and over-financed foundation, government agency, or corporation. Helio Thermics is actually little more than three brothers . . . Randy, Mike, and Larry Granger. Three brothers who—in their backyard, so to speak—studied some U.S. Department of Agriculture research data (which is freely available to anyone) and then—based on that information—designed, built, and refined an exceptionally clever solar-heating and -cooling system.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

One of the most impressive things about the Granger brothers is that, unlike far too many experimenters in the field, they didn't try to design their sun-powered system "wrong end to". That is, they did not become so embroiled in the usual "my collector is more efficient than your collector and my method of heat transfer is better than yours" competition that they wound up—as other experimenters have—"proving" themselves "right" with a funny looking, lopsided, uncomfortable house that cost two or three hundred thousand dollars.

Instead, they "began at the beginning" by concentrating on the more prosaic (although, in some ways, far more important) components of their system. Things like studding and insulation.

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