When it comes to heating costs, most of us are not lucky enough to live in a temperate area with a constant year-round climate, and instead have to contend with winter heating bills that can be exceptionally high. When evaluating alternative home heating, an option that is often overlooked is passive solar heating. You not only save money, but energy as well.

Even on the coldest winter days, the sun's heat can be significant. It's only the shortness of the days that keeps the snows from melting. What if you could harness that heating power, even for the short time you get it, without making huge changes to the structure of your home?

Passive solar heating works best and most economically in climates with clear skies during the winter and where traditional heating sources are relatively expensive. Passive solar design is very energy efficient and reduces energy demands for lighting, heating and cooling.

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 an airspace to prevent heat loss to outside at night. Above the glass is a shade that allows direct exposure to the low winter sun, but shades the glass from the prolonged heat of the high summer sun, helping to keep summer cooling bills low as well.

The room behind the Trombe wall receives slow, even heating for many hours after the sun sets. Rooms heated by a Trombe wall will often feel more comfortable than those heated by forced-air systems because of the radiantly warm surface of the wall, even at lower air temperatures.

Many of us are interested in pursuing more energy efficient heating alternatives such as passive solar heating. Whatever alternative you choose the cost of installation may be expensive. Whether you are seeking a custom designed home or renovating an existing structure you have options. One advantage of passive solar heating is that once installed continued use expenses are nominal.

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.

Now that the awareness of green issues is commonplace, people are becoming aware of the costs involved in heating our homes, both financial and environmental. Ideas from our ancestors, both ancient and not so ancient, solutions such as passive solar heating, are being looked at as viable because not only do they have a benefit environmentally, but they save us money as well.