Solar Energy Without Panels

Afternoon sunlight brightens and warms a living room. Life, and civilization's prospects, would be so much better if the nation had long ago made passive solar the customary design for homes. Instead, abundant free heat glances uselessly off the siding. Such a waste, but we make the best of what we have, which is a nice bank of windows facing south and west, where solar energy can stream in during the afternoon, reducing the need for the furnace to kick in. Screens are stored in the basement so the windows will allow in as much warmth and light as possible.

As with most environmental problems, cheap fossil energy from the Underground is the culprit, having long made the harvesting of free energy streaming down upon us from the sun a low priority. By increasing our dependence on fuels from the Underground, artificially low prices make us actually spend more on fuel in the long term than if high fuel prices had motivated us to find alternatives.

Body heat, which I recently read is equal to 100 watts, is another source of solar energy, captured by plants, released as energy in the body, and then held close by wool, Thinsulate, fleece, down--whatever works. Without the distorting effect of cheap fossil energy, many homes would be doing very well with little more than these two forms of solar harvest.

To better distinguish between ancient solar energy and today's, here's a relevant quote from a Climate QandA section of my frugaline.org site:

"Since fossil fuels are made from ancient life that was buried 100s of millions of years ago, some will say that they are simply another form of solar energy. But the burial of those hydrocarbons over millions of years played an important role in creating the temperate climate in which we evolved and have thrived."