Looming energy crisis? Perhaps the solution is right under our feet

Ron Tolmie is convinced he found the future in the past.

The long-time employee of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. had moved into a farmhouse on the outskirts of Ottawa, an old stone structure that was cool in summer and freezing in winter, and he began to think about ways in which he might warm things up without melting his savings.

He remembered growing up in Southwestern Ontario in the 1930s and 1940s, and how ice was kept in summer by packing it in sawdust.

If you could store cold in summer, he wondered, why not heat in winter?

A simple question he thinks can be easily answered.

Unfortunately, no one’s listening.

Globe and Mail