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Unfortunately for those of us who don't live in Southern California, the price of keeping our homes warm during the winter can be enormous. It can easily become a waste of power and savings. Going green in home heating can be effective in saving you money and helping out the environment- so why not consider passive solar heating when you're looking for alternative home heating options?

A fair bit of solar energy hits the surface of the earth, even in the depth of winter. The surface temperature would actually rise much higher were the days of the same length as in the summer. Imagine the possibilities of collecting power every minute the sun is available. Even better, what if no major alterations to your house would be required?

Enter the Trombe wall. It's a wall of material used for thermal mass (concrete or stone, for example) to store the heat of the day and release it slowly through the day and night. It's insulated on the outside by a pane of glass and an airspace to prevent heat loss to outside at night. Above the glass is a shade that allows direct exposure to the low winter sun, but shades the glass from the prolonged heat of the high summer sun, helping to keep summer cooling bills low as well.

True, short of major renovations, such an addition isn't going to be easy to retrofit to your house, and custom designed homes are expensive. But retrofitting a house for other energy efficient heating techniques, like radiant heating, is also expensive and, unlike the other alternatives, passive solar heating, once implemented, costs nothing to continue using.

Consider also the fact that the concept of the Trombe wall is a 19th century invention that was popularized in the 1960's and so has been designed into a number of existing homes. So when you're looking for that new, energy efficient home, know that designs of yesteryear can still be green.

The ideas being pushed in the mainstream do work, but people have been looking for ways to save money for years. It's just now that people are becoming more environmentally conscious and the cost of heating has risen so much that we are starting to look back at the clever solutions like passive solar heating that our ancestors used to save scarce resources, and use them instead to help save the planet.

One thing people seldom consider when it comes to alternative home heating is the use of passive solar heating. What if you could harness that heating power, even for the short time you get it, without making huge changes to the structure of your home? Enter the Trombe wall. It's a wall of material used for thermal mass to store the heat of the day and release it slowly through the day and night. It's insulated on the outside by a pane of glass and an airspace to prevent heat loss to outside at night.