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Indirect solar gain is one of three methods of passive solar heating, in addition to isolated and direct gain. When solar heat is collected in one area and transferred to another through the process of convection, this is the indirect method.

Here's a rundown of how it works. As with most passive solar heating systems that don't require the use of mechanical pumps or fans, heat is invited indoors through a series of south-facing windows. It is then absorbed through building materials with thermal mass, or the natural capacity to absorb heat. These materials include masonry walls or floors. When placed in a container, water can be even more effective than masonry or concrete in that it exchanges heat more quickly. Water walls and roof ponds are examples of how water containers can be used for indirect solar gain. These are described below.

Any numbers of energy experts-in Wall Street, in specialist trading outfits and in government bureaus throughout the world-have concluded that, since demand for oil will continue to outstrip supply, crude prices will remain on a firm-to-higher path in the foreseeable future. The problem is that hardly any statistical formulation is based on audited or established facts.

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Solar attic fan is the ultimate simple and cost effective solution for a well known problem that many home owners are facing every day. Moisture and mold destroys slowly but effectively the house infrastructure. Solar attic fan can fight this irritating problem.

You are well familiar with the fact that hot air is lighter then cold air and therefore goes up. During the day, the sun hit your walls and roof, this heat inside your house is aggregated and eventually is trapped in your attic which is the highest place in your house and this hot energy has nowhere to go.

That trapped heat in your attic is "great" condition to moisture and the development of mold. If you have an attic solar fan then it will "push" away all the trapped hot air and helps the humidity to spread away and will remove all those optimal conditions to any mold development.

The price that Wall Street futures investors pay for a barrel of crude oil has shot up to near $90. That means you can expect to pay even more for your next purchase of Heating Oil.

The items listed below are in priority order for action to reduce the amount of oil you use.

1. Stop drafts - at windows, doors and the fireplace.

2. Insulate the attic - Make sure you have enough insulation to give you at least R-49 protection for your money.

3. Have your furnace cleaned and tuned up by a professional. Oil furnaces are very rugged and will burn oil and put out heat even when they are running at poor efficiency. A dirty, out of tune oil furnace can operate with a combustion efficiency as low as 60%. Just by cleaning and tuning the combustion efficiency can be brought up to 75% or more. That is a 25 cents on the dollar improvement in oil use. The furnace pro will also be doing a safety check to insure that a faulty furnace will not cause fire or carbon monoxide poisoning

4. Back down your thermostat at every opportunity. Especially at night and when no one is home.

5. Make sure your house walls are well insulated including basement walls.

6. Change or wash your furnace filter every month during the heating season. A blocked air filter drastically reduces airflow and increases the amount of time your furnace has to run to keep the house warm. This is a do it yourself job. Have the furnace pro show you how when he visits.

7. Be ready to switch to electric heat. As the price of oil goes up, at some point it will be less expensive to heat with electric power using space heaters. I suggest you buy a few electric space heaters when you can find them at bargain prices so you will be ready. As example, Oil at $3.09 a gallon is equal to electric power at 8 cents a kilowatt-hour for heating use. If you live where the price electricity is moderate, you may want to use space heaters to supplement your oil heat. Using an electric space heater to keep your bedroom warm and let the rest of the house go cold overnight will save on your total heating bill. My wife uses an electric space heater in the bathroom during her morning shower and that is good because it puts heat just where it is needed, for a short time.

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The electric car was killed off a few years ago by the big car companies. You can read all about that here.

Just leave it to good old ingenuity and stick to it ness for things to get done in this country. The electric car went away but now due to some hard work and dedication some folks have taken hybrid cars that run on a combo of gas and battery power and applied more battery technology and computer software to create the new plug in cars of today. They get 60-100 miles per gallon!

Toyota Prius owners have taken the already popular and fuel efficient hybrid and and created their own version of the plug-in electric car that has been mourned by those of us who wanted electric cars and had them taken off the market by the big car companies.

In Northern California Prius owners have done it for this reason: five words. Those five words? one hundred miles per gallon. Imagine that if you will. These are not folks waiting years for the imaginary car they promise us will come out some day. No they have gone and done it and are proudly driving around town smoking the rest of us on gas mileage.

Felix Kramer of Redwood City, CA did it. He says,"We took the hybrid car to its logical conclusion." by adding more batteries and the ability to recharge by plugging into a regular socket in the wall at night, making it a plug-in hybrid car. A normal Prius gets around 50 mpg on the highway, but these modified versions get twice that by replying more on the cleaner, cheaper electricity and battery technology they have added to the mix.

These trend setters tweaked and changed their cars to make a point tha tif they could do it then the car makers can too and should!

They have a group online called the California Cars Initiative. The coversion consists of adding inexpensive lead acid batteries and some innovative software that allows them to fool the car's computerized controls into using more of the the energy stored in batteries, which ends up giving the cars over 100 mpg in local driving conditions and 50-80 mpg on the highways. The cost of the conversion runs about $5000.

image - cal cars