Using the solar oven principle, store that heat in a suitable material or fluid and with an easy change of casing, place the heater in a cold area of the house.

I am imagining the heater, in store mode, to be heavily insulated on three sides, painted in black absorbant pigment on the inside, with the best oneway thermal glass possible. This unit can be tilted slightly for sun angle variances. Lenses and mirrors are also a possibility but, an all day, sunny position still has to be found.

On bringing the heater inside, the case can be opened and the core is rotated, placing fins that were on the insulated side, onto the glass. The glass is also reversed allowing all that lovely stored heat to ebb out.

"Johnny, be a good boy and bring in the heaters, Grandma wants her rocks."
-- wjt, Jul 11 2021

Hot Asteroid Power Hot_20Asteroid_20Power
Rocks orbit near the sun to heat up, then are insulated to bring the heat to Earth [sninctown, Jul 11 2021]

why not call it "fins", "glass", "solar oven", "sun tracker", or a great many other names which capture merely parts of this idea? i would include the wikipedia link to each of the above, for clarity, but that seems a bit redundant.

technically, there's no such thing as "one-way glass"; rather, the glass can be coated to reflect rays in the thermal infrared band but transmit rays in other bands. a "one-way mirror" only appears such because of uneven lighting on the opposite side.

i proposed an orbital version, somewhat similar to this idea, some time ago, but it had many problems.
-- sninctown, Jul 11 2021


Grandma doesn't live in orbit?
-- pertinax, Jul 11 2021


As per "Solar Heating Robot", you need a large area for heating & a small (surface) area for storage; & using a liquid is much easier than moving solid lumps.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 12 2021


Kids are young and regular muscle training can't hurt. They might even think round. Even an electronically manipulated round.
-- wjt, Jul 13 2021



random, halfbakery