Click here For photographs and three articles on a building heated since 1984 by a Thomason trickle-down heater and storage system--the Pinnacle Road U.S. Customs border station in Richford, Vermont, on the U.S.-Canadian border. From Solar Today, January/February 2003.
Click here for a drawing of a storage system similar to the one that seems to have been used in the Pinnacle Road building.
Fairly detailed information about the design of trickle-down solar water heaters, and other solar heating apparatus, may be found in Thomason's well written US patents. US Patent Office patent numbers and titles: (List generated by search argument IN/thomason-harry-e in the advanced search function of the USPTO web site)
(1) 5,103,802 Thermosyphon heat-storage and backup heat apparatus
(2) 4,852,547 Heat storage
(3) 4,369,764 Solar heat storage system
(4) 4,343,293 Solar domestic water heater
(5) 4,284,059 Heat storage and heat exchanger
(6) 4,265,219 Solar heating (cooling) system
(7) 4,158,358 Heat and cold storage apparatus
(8) 4,146,011 Solar energy
(9) 4,139,055 Solar heating (cooling)
(10) 4,134,544 Solar heating system
(11) 4,132,220 Solar energy collector
(12) 4,102,327 Solar heating (cooling) system
(13) 4,082,143 Solar energy
(14) 4,048,812 Solar-energy conserving
(15) 4,029,082 Heat and cold storage apparatus
(16) 3,989,031 Solar heat collector
(17) 3,980,130 Heat, cold and dry storage
You will need a TIFF Viewer such as CPC View to view patents in the USPTO database.