Will the car run out of gas or did I forget to fill it up?

This might seem like a very stupid question, but it have some real impact on the way act to the energy question. I was on an oil-meeting the other week and we talked about 200$ oil - more specific when oil will hit 200$. Some said we might not hit 200$/barrel, because the economy would take a dive long before 200$ - It might not reach 100$ before it would turn the economy in to recession again. If that happens its not curtain that any fingers will be pointed at the oil, but all talk will be about the "bad" economy. Then we will miss the point that the energy-price is bringing down the economy (again) and miss that we have an energy crisis, but look to the politicians or the bankers to fix the "money" problem.
when we hit 147$/barrel Juli 2008 it was clear to all (in mass-media) that there where an oil(price)problem, but when the world monetary system nearly collapsed 2 month later (October 2008) all talk of oil disappeared and to this day only a small group of die-hards have made the connection between oil and money. That the oil got to 147$ in the first placed was probably because of "good" state of the world economy up to crash - If the the general state of the world economy had bin worse when oil-demand outstripped supply and there way a price ramp-up, the price might not had passed 100$ before the "bad" economy had destroyed demand.
If I have 5 liters of gasoline left in the car, but no money to buy more gasoline, I would probably not think that I have a "gasoline problem" but likely think I'm a poor man (unsuccessful pathetic broke idiot) that need to get some money.
If I drive the car and it run out of gas, THEN I will think that I have an acute gasoline problem.
 
One of the BIG challenges right now is to promote the connection between oil (energy) and money.          
   

The case off the Open Solar panel controler - 1

Here it is - a real beauty. It so simple I can make it (alone - no help). Its cheap, no micro-components.. Its build on the Arduino project. Its scalable (if I have a large solar-panel array). Its open hardware.
Oh and its for controlling the charging of lead-acid batteries with solar-panels. If you don't control the power coming from the solar-panels it ends up cocking all the water out of the batteries (and that kills the batteries for good). I want one of these and I do in fact also need one one for my 2 55w solar-panels.
A nice fellow - Tim Nolan has put a lot of effort in this project and I really like the documentation.

Then comes the hard part - finding the right parts. Tim live in the states and he shoppes from shops there, in the states. I could do the same (same shops), but that have drawbacks.

• Difficult to return parts if parts are defect and its expensive.
• My packet could be intercepted in customs. Beside for the 2 week extra delay, there a possible extra cost. 
• The packet could be lost somewhere in transit (it happens).

So I opt for baying as close as possible to home. Then comes the problem - parts are parts are parts. Very often parts in USA is not called the same as the same part in EU. Then there is the problem of resellers naming the part something else so you can't compare prices with another reseller.

• An example: The project needs a MAX4173H ic-chip. Very well.. its a chip for charging batteries.. where to find? 

• Elfa don't have MAX4173H, but they do have MAX4172ESA and it seems to be doing the same... but i don't know for sure.. I'm not an electric engineer. The chip cost 4 euros and it feels like a very stupid problem.
•  If I google MAX4173H:.se and uk and dk and de and no - no hit. 

Its the tower of babel all over again..

More later (when I have tracked down the elusive parts).