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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?

Now we have the Trombe wall. It is made of some sort of material (concrete or rock, for instance) which is utilized because of its thermal mass. This means that it holds in the heat of the warmest part of the daytime and releases it gradually throughout the following hours. It has exterior insulation by means of a sheet of glass and also has an airspace which means it avoids losing warmth during the nighttime. Over the glass there is a shade which lets the lower wintertime sunshine in but keeps the higher summertime sunshine out. That results in smaller air conditioning costs also.

It is not very easy to retrofit your home, and you would might need to do a major renovation. Custom designed homes are also expensive. Retrofitting your home for other energy efficient heating systems such as radiant heating is also expensive. However, with passive solar heating, after you pay for installation, it costs nothing to heat your home.

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 commonly presented traditional views are viable, but we have all been searching for a long time for ways to economize. Finally nowadays, we have become more ecologically aware and, given the high prices of our usual heat sources, we have begun to think about clever answers found by our forefathers, such as passive solar heating. That allows us to preserve precious, dwindling resources and utilize them alternatively in our struggle to save our beleaguered planet.

One thing people seldom consider when it comes to alternative home heating is the use of passive solar heating. 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 airspace to prevent heat loss to outside at night. This wall has been installed in many existing homes. If you want a new, energy efficient home, you can still consider installing a green Trombe wall.