Environment

Rotating house follows the sun

by Paul Conneally | December 4, 2009 at 12:29 pm

1345 views | 40 Recommendations | 3 comments

An Australian couple, the Evringhams, have built a house that rotates to follow the sun. The whole house is turned by a motor not much bigger than that in a washing machine and enables the house to make the most of the available sunlight.
If readers are wondering if all that turning might make the occupants dizzy well although not spinning quickly the couple admit it can be a little disorientering.

The couple have their own website Evringham Rotating House where pictures and videos of the house can be viewed.

The property, in Wingham, New South Wales, boasts irregularly-shaped rooms which are more spacious than most conventional houses and capture as much natural light as possible.

The entire structure, weighing approximately 50 tonnes, is powered by two electric engines not much bigger than a washing machine motor.

Rotation is controlled using a touch panel on the wall of the living room which can be preprogrammed or operated manually.

3 See all footage | View Slideshow

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tikun

at 12:33 on December 4th, 2009

It would be cool if we had a video.

Paul Conneally

at 12:44 on December 4th, 2009

videos now in place!

Uwe Paschen

at 18:12 on December 4th, 2009

It is not a new concept though. There have been rotating house even sky scraper before.

His concept is cheeper in the short run, but the cables and plumbing will show fatigue with in a few years and it is not as energy efficient as could be with modern standards. It lacks solar power and wind power or Thermal energy there for would not comply with Japanese or German building codes for new houses.

This can be done in the country but would not be a solution for cities or towns.

As Hugh Askew said here, gears would be a better choice and would require less energy to move the house.