[strider3700]

I do a lot of heating of my house with a woodstove insert. To safely do it takes a fair amount of work. To do it in a method that won't void your insurance if you have a fire takes a bunch more work. Basically my point is It's not the simplest thing to do and wood can be a pain in the *** to deal with.

If you wanted to go solar why not do something like the solar shed idea on builditsolar? pump the hotwater from panels through a well insulated trench and into radiators or if you already have it a radiant heated floor.

I've also been thinking about building hot air collectors and doing the same sort of thing. Line them up by my garden and push the air 25 or so feet through an insulated trench then into my basement. I'm not sure the savings on the collectors is enough to warrant the extra insulation in the trench. Adding some hot water rads or a water to air heat exchanger in the cold air return on my furnace may be a better way to go.

also looking at that picture it looks like the east and south eastern corner should get 1/2 a days sun. depending on how large of a collector you can fit on the wall or the roof you could get a fair amount of heat that way.