Eggplant:

A couple of years back I read an article saying that solar surface current activity, which predicts the amount of heat coming up from the depths of the sun, was at the lowest level ever recorded, which covered a period from the late 1800′s when such observations began.

This was said to predict a unusually low sunspot period beginning in 2018 or so. No mention of the effects on the Earth was made. This was at Space.com, so they dealt with just the space aspects.

But at that time I worked with a real degree-carrying astronomer and he pointed out that meant not just less sunspots but lower solar output overall. And that makes sense to me. If the currents that result from the inner solar processes are so much less, there must be less heat available.

And as you say, I have yet to see anyone plug this into the equation, so to speak. There is that one guy that did that presentation on how sunspots affect cloud cover on Earth, but not even he mentioned the overall solar output aspects.