Passive Solar Greenhouse

Today I was in the ‘green booth’ at a local parish festival to display my growing power home model and to do the Uncle Bob’s growing power magic show. In the booth with me, displaying some green technology was a couple that lived in a house powered by solar panels. In fact the high tech solar panels on their house produce enough electricity for two houses plus. Their house is tied into the electric grid and instead of getting an electrical bill each month they get a check for the extra electricity they produced and do not use.

So I decided to ask one of them the question I have asked many solar persons over and over again: “What is a simple and affordable solar energy system that I can place on the south facing roof of my unheated sun room.” The answer I got back this time, however, was truly a simple and affordable solution. He suggested I build a passive solar box on the roof that would capture the warm air of the sun and put it in the sun room to heat it up. A vent on the lower end would bring the air into the box where it would be heated by sun, rise, and be released at the other end by a vent into the sun room. The fan in the sun room, which I already have, would blow the hot air down and around. At night or when it is too hot, a flap on the vent inside the room would shut, keeping the warm air from escaping. The soil in the GP Box and other planters plus the floor would absorb the heat during the day and slowly release it at night. Actually I would not need to worry about the room being too hot in the winter since I can always open the doors from the house to the sun room and use the excess heat to heat the house. He explained to me that this system has been commonly used by greenhouses over the years.

Tonight I decided to look at passive solar greenhouses on the internet to see what they looked like. To my surprise one of the first pictures I saw looked just like a house my friend in Madison had built for his family in a rural area some years ago. This is the same friend whose son designed the five pane Air inserts we use to insulate the sun room now, and the same friend who came up with the science for the Fact Sheet for the AIR system.

Here I was looking all over for a solar system that would be simple and affordable to heat the sun room and the answer was already within me and had been given to me by my friend years ago.

I sincerely believe that all we need to know is within us, but still we keep looking elsewhere for answers. I friend asked today on a peace list-serve how we can end the war in Afghanistan. I do not know the answer but do know the answer is within us and starts when we, as individuals and groups, stop the war at home.

Again I go back to one of my favorite song lines: “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.” Or now I can say about using the sun to heat the sun room, the green answer is within.

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