The soaring cost of gasoline and heating oil is steering Maine people back to the basics of personal energy management.

Keeping pace with the march of petroleum prices is renewed interest in alternative fuels – wood, coal, propane and natural gas.

Each Monday on the Business Page, the Bangor Daily News is featuring Focus on Energy – timely, relevant stories and graphics devoted to topics that matter to motorists, homeowners and businesses.

Most of all, we want to answer your questions. E-mail us with questions, or tips you want to share, to energy@bangordailynews.net. We’ll do our best to find the answers, and offer them to you, here in Focus on Energy. Today, Dick Hill, a retired engineering professor, offers answers to one reader’s question.