As the co-owner of a California property that has never been tied to the electric grid, I can attest to the warm feeling of self-sufficiency that comes with a functioning solar power system. We’ve ...

Installing solar power at a home is a great way to reduce electricity bills, especially as the cost of solar panels and their associated electronics continue to plummet. Not every utility allows ...

Heating water is one of the most energy-consuming and costly household tasks. According to the Department of Energy, it makes up roughly 18% of a standard home's monthly energy budget. And if you use ...

Welcome to our series answering reader questions and concerns about how to cut the utility company cord. I currently use wood to heat my off-grid home but would like to figure out my options for using ...

In the early 198os, my dad installed a solar thermal panel on our roof in Florida. For a 5-year-old, the big black square looked like a portal into the future. The device, essentially a glass box with ...

Your hot shower or bath uses 15-30% of your household’s total energy, second only to the heating and cooling of air. More than half of all Australian households rely on electric water heaters with a ...

Researchers in Malaysia designed a photovoltaic-thermal system that can be used in solar drying, space heating, rooftop systems, and off-grid thermal applications. It relies on a double-pass cooling ...