Dogs know that the best energy is local energy, whether it be sunlight streaming in through a window or the solar energy captured by neighborhood trees turned into firewood for the woodstove. Leo here has found the sweet spot where he can enjoy the benefit of both. No grid is needed for this wonderfully radiant heat, no fracking to feed the gas furnace, no drill-baby-drill extraction to feed the fuel oil tank, no blowing up of mountains in West Virginia to deliver coal-generated electricity to drive the furnace fan, no venting of climate-changing fossil carbon up through the chimney.
If the world made more sense, if it had not been led down an unsustainable path by deceptively cheap energy from the underground, our homes would be heated largely by sunlight in the winter. Lacking a home oriented and designed to make maximum use of winter sunlight, we make do with what the windows allow in, what scavenged and well-cured wood can generate, and what insulation will keep from escaping. The furnace still runs, but less.
One vivid memory I have is of visiting a homemade passive solar house in northern Minnesota. A bank of reused windows facing south, a large overhang to keep the sun out in summer, and a 55 gallon drum converted into a woodstove--these were the ingredients that made for cozy, light-filled comfort in the middle of a harsh winter. No moving parts to break down, and a kettle steaming on the stove to keep some humidity in the air. Another memorable, and far better known, passive solar house out that way is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Madison, Wisconsin.
Pertaining to this harvest of local energy, and the "sense of place" it can contribute to, the Princeton Environmental Film Festival will host a short documentary followed by a discussion of passive solar homes ("Passive Passion", Saturday, January 26, 4pm).
1 comment:
There's a house on Pine St. that uses passive solar. It's easy to spot. We live next door but have never asked about how well it works.
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