Dear Jim: We have teenage daughters who take long showers. Our water heating costs are sky high. We are on a tight budget, but want to use some solar water heating. Is there a do-it-yourself system we ...

Since ancient times, people have found ways to use the sun’s heat to stay warm or keep cool. They built homes from clay and other materials that hold heat well, and they placed them in ways that ...

• Hot-water usage: Since the more hot water you use the more money you save with a solar heating system, large households will save a lot more by going solar. For example, a family of four will save a ...

As winter departs it's a good time to evaluate how well the heating's been working. Bruce Gill updates us on his DIY solar heating system installed a decade ago, spiders and all. Journal Information ...

Passive cooling, like the shade a tree provides, has been around forever. Recently, researchers have been exploring how to turbo charge a passive cooling technique — known as radiative or sky cooling ...

Learn how to make solar water heater panels by building this thermosiphon outdoor shower system that can even water your greenhouse. A few years back, a friend donated a Sunvelope solar hot water ...

The solar heating system on Nick Glumac's home in Morgan Park may look elaborate, but the idea behind it is simple: It's like putting a coat on your house, he says. "In the winter, what do you do for ...

Solar energy has been around for a long time now, which means it's become much more accessible to normal homeowners. With solar panels or collectors installed on your roof, you can take advantage of ...

From a distance, the energy system on top of a college residence hall in Omaha, Nebraska looks like photovoltaic panels. But as you get closer, it becomes clear that this is something different, with ...

Solar water heaters work by absorbing sunlight in solar collectors and saving the heated water in a storage tank. Both active and passive solar water heaters are available. Active systems are ...

As a former realtor, general contractor and greenhouse operator, Kristi has touched nearly all aspects of homeownership, from the foundation up. Today, Kristi is a full-time investing and real estate ...