I'm talking here about an industrial context, where a great deal of air is required. In such cases, the heat produced by solar collectors costs 3¢ per kilowatt/hour. If we do the same exercise for the residential sector, we find a production cost of 5, 6 or 7¢ per kilowatt/hour to heat a home of the type you described. As I said, the heating season in Canada is long, but there is a lot of sun. Using existing technology and the software and calculation methods of Natural Resources Canada, we can produce energy at a cost of 5 to 7¢ per kilowatt/hour, without any subsidies.
However, I should point out that the cost of such a system is $5,000. You will be paying 7, 8 or 9¢ per kilowatt/hour for your electricity, so it is slightly more expensive. That means that it would take 10 or 12 years to recover your investment. But since Canadians change houses every seven or eight years, according to the statistics, they are not interested in this. We need to develop incentives, a program that will eliminate this barrier for people who want to try solar energy.
When people realize they will have to spend $5,000, their reaction is that they could spend this money on other things. They're very pleased to find out that the cost is 5 or 6¢ per kilowatt/hours, but they become discouraged when they find out they have to spend $5,000 and only recover that amount over 12 years. The cost is already going down. What we have to take into account is the cost of producing the energy. It becomes possible to consider this option if we look at it in these terms, rather than in terms of recovering one's investment.