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How is your old house built? Is it stone wall or frame wall? My impression is that almost all of the older homes, even ones with 18" thick stone walls, have very poor "R" value, the measure of heat insulating value of the wall. Even a simple frame wall made to modern construction standards and with normal insulation has a much higher R value than these old homes. My point is that it is not easy to raise the R value of a stone wall without greatly upsetting it's esthetics; at least with an old frame type wall you can add insulation.
About the hybrid vehicles being more environmentally sensitive, I guess this is more my rhetorical question than an answer since I'm not sure:
I've been hearing/reading more lately about the bigger global-economic picture with these vehicles being that while they emit less noxious stuff, it takes a lot more noxious emissions/pollution to manufacture that type of vehicle and the balance is not in their favor. I actually have this on my "things to look into" but don't know the current "facts".
PS: we did buy an '07 RAV4 a couple months ago and I love it and so does my wife and kids, so it's a big winner in our house. We weren't looking for ultimate economy, just something mid/small with more utility than a car and not as big as most SUV's that is comfortable and reliable.
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