Solar Space Heating

There are two things specifically that I'm really interested in finding.

1) Finding a solution to provide hot water.
2) Finding a solution to provide space heating.

With the price of oil going crazy, I like the idea of a solar boiler of some sort to supplement (and hopefully replace in the summer) oil. It really irritates me when I hear my furnace come on in July and August to heat water.

Space heating is a little trickier and, from what I've been seeing and reading, a lot more expensive. I have hotwater baseboard. All of the solutions for solar space heating are for radiant in floor heating. If forced, I could go that way as my basement is unfinished and there is access to the underside of the subfloor (I guess procrastination in this case pays off).

CMHC indicates that the cost of a radiant systems is somewhere round $600-800/100 sq ft. That would be roughly $7000-9000.

I did find a company out of Connecticut, Apricus, that has a heat dissipator that looks like it may have interesting possibilities if it can be hooked in conjuction with a solar boiler of some sort. The closest Apricus dealer, Generation PV, is in Ontario. I've made contact with them to get more information about there products and if it sounds good I'll check them out with the local BBB and see what other history I can get on the company.

5/1/2008 - Correction

The Apricus heat dissipator is not a space heater, it is designed to eliminate excess heat from a solar water heating system during the summer months.