Hi everyone, long time no see. When I was last contributing regularly, I was rather excited by the possibilities of hybrid vehicles. Having a bit of a fetish for less-popular choices, rather than gas-electric hybrid cars I was looking at electric-human hybrid bicycles. (Summary: they work, but in a fairly limited window of needs. A pure-pedal bicycle is what I ride at the moment.) My new subject is home energy efficiency. We have a 40-year old furnace that needs replacing, and I think this year is the year we're actually going to do it. But with what? The basic, popular high-efficiency modern models? The nifty, all-electric heat pump? Fancy European solar thermal panels? I dunno, but I'm working on it, and I'll try to blog a bit along the way.