Warm Feet For February! Solar Radiant Heated Floors For the Winter

Well, we are experiencing some record low temperatures here in Asheville, NC. It has dropped below zero the past couple of nights, and I was walking around in 9 degree weather with a wind chill that made my face feel like it was going to fall off. I am a cold natured person with Caribbean blood, so winters like this are no fun for me. I would be miserable and freezing right now if it weren't for the NC alternative power company installing solor power, green power, wind power, radiant floors and photovoltaic cells that helped me rig up solar heating and solar heated water in my big old house I share with my grandfather. He had the hot water pump set so low I was avoiding showers for weeks and boiling water to wash the dishes- can you say "inefficient"?? We are always concerned about the energy bill, and trying to conserve energy but our old gas powered radiators just weren't doing the trick. I was wearing three pairs of socks last week, but now that I've got solar power, there is ample radiant heat keeping us irie and warm. Now I can move around freely, cooking huevos rancheros and brewing tea in the kitchen instead of hiding out watching Planet Earth all day huddled up in my bed, married to my heated mattress. Perhaps it was the marvelous beauty of nature that BBC captured so well that inspired me to go green. Green power is the hottest new thing- literally! Consider getting solar panels installed, or get up on this radiant floor tip. We love our new radiant floors. It works like this- they embedded special tubing in a thin concrete mixture on top of our wood-framed floors. Heated water (or a food-grade antifreeze mixture), heated by solar power, flows through this tubing, warming the thermal mass of the concrete.

Conventional forced-air systems, wood stoves, or other heating methods produce uneven heat, with the highest air temperatures near the ceilings. Radiant floor heating puts the heat in the floor under your tiny little feet, gently warming your toes, a room or a complete structure. Now it's even warmer and comfier in here, and we are not wasting energy and precious little money on monthly fuel bills. We count our coins now for luxuries like sauerkraut and brandy. I have bad circulation in my hands and feet, and when your feet are as tiny and cold as mine, you fall in love with these heated floors. No longer do I have to have my feet all bound up in a dozen layers of socks! They are happy, bare and getting bigger. Photovoltaics, which is a fancy word for solar panels, are really the way to go. With solar panels, you can get solar hot water!

Consider this. The sun is the biggest source of energy available on earth. For thousands of years humans have depended on solar energy to warm their homes. Back in the day, homes were sited to take advantage of natural solar heating. Since the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas have been used instead. Fossil fuels are increasingly expensive, dirty, and difficult to extract. The coal industry, specifically, is a dirty business, presently destroying our precious mountains and poisoning our water. But there's hope! Today millions of people throughout the world are using solar energy to heat their homes and water and generate electricity. Viva green power!