Materials with high thermal energy storage capacity contained in or part of a building's walls, floors, or freestanding elements.

A widely used rate of return for performing economic analysis. This method solves for the interest rate that equates the equivalent worth of an alternative's cash receipts or savings to the equivalent worth of cash expenditures, including investments. The ...

A heat exchanger in which two fluids flow in opposite directions for transfer heat energy from one to the other.

A solar energy system designed to provide heat to individual rooms in a building.

A heating system in which steam or hot water for space heating or hot water is piped from a central boiler plant or electric power/heating plant to a cluster of buildings.

A glazed structure, such as greenhouse or "sunspace."

Energy that is capable or available for doing work; the time rate at which work is performed, measured in horsepower, Watts, or Btu per hour. Electric power is the product of electric current and electromotive force.

The practice of installing blow-in, loose-fill insulation at a lower density than is recommended to meet a specified R-Value.

A body of water used to cool the water that is circulated in an electric power plant.

A deposition process whereby heat is used to break molecules into elemental sources that are then spray deposited on a substrate.

A measure of the ability of a light source to show colors, based on a color rendering index.

A type of water heater in which heated water is stored within the tank. Hot water is released from the top of the tank when a hot water faucet is turned. This water is replaced with cold water that flows into the tank and down to just above the bottom pla ...

A type of window glazing films used to block the infrared (heat) portion of the solar spectrum but admit a higher portion of visible light.

A solar thermal electric central reciever power plant ("power tower") located in Barstow, California, and completed in 1981. The Solar One had a design capacity of 10,000 peak kilowatts, and was composed of a receiver located on the top of a tower surroun ...

Strips of material used to separate multiple panes of glass within the windows.

To schedule and control the generation and delivery of electric power.

In reference to solar photovoltaic devices, a material that is composed of a single crystal or a few large crystals.

A type of automatic thermostat (used on solar heating systems) that responds to temperature differences (between collectors and the storage components) so as to regulate the functioning of appliances (to switch transfer fluid pumps on and off).

A tube inside a domestic water heater that distributes the cold water from the cold water supply line into the lower area of the water heater where heating occurs.

The air that is supplied to the combustion chamber of a furnace.