I just love the idea of passive solar heat–I mean really. . . free heat from the sun? It’s frugal, it’s green and it’s sustainable. A triple play.
The only thing is, I’m not really sure I totally believe that it would work in our northern climate.
Regardless, here is an interesting video from a guy who built a passive solar heat unit for his window out of old pop cans, some paint and some wood.
I wonder if I could convince Yankee Bill to try this? Have any of you ever used a passive solar heating unit of any type? I’d love to hear your experiences.

Wow! I’ve never done anything like this, but I do benefit from passive solar. My bedroom will get very hot in the winter when the sun streams in (and stays cool in the summer because of the trees outside).
That is passive solar energy at it’s best! It’s funny, in the “old” days houses were situated and trees planted to allow maximum sun to enter the house on cold winter days, provide shade on summer days (hence trees that drop their leaves in winter but are shade producers in summer), and to screen the wind (ie pines etc). . . these days they don’t pay attention to any of it and just slam as many houses on a street as they can and then everyone has to pay to heat and cool. . .
How would this work in your house? Where would you put it to get indoor heat? Please explain!
Gretchen-Well, the south side of our house is the only place this would work–I don’t think in upstate NY there would be enough winter sun anywhere else. Basically in the winter we only heat the downstairs and then each bedroom has a baseboard electric heater (we have a town electric co-op that is very reasonable) that is on a programmable thermostat-so the bedrooms are only heated for about an hour in the morning, and for a couple hours around bedtime. Also, we usually close the pocket doors between the den and the front parlor/entryway that has the stairs heading to the upstairs. In the winter, it’s like 40 degrees in there during the day. So if I put something like this in the windows in that front hall/entry downstairs and upstairs I wonder if it would help make the temp in there more moderate. . .
It would work well out here in AZ but not in the Valley of the Sun Phoenix, I think it would be way too warm even in the depth of winter. Up north in the cooler regions it would work well. Mike and I are having a house built north of here near Sedona, AZ, I think this would work well during the winter months.