Sustainable North

From National Geographic’s Green Guide:

Green up your laundry room with cleaner, healthier products. Check out this interactive guide.

From The Anchorage Daily News, Sunday, August 15, 2010:

As an Alaska Native veteran, I want to see our country expand our clean energy sources. It will help our planet and our state, it will help Alaska’s Native peoples and it will help our national defense.

I am 69 years old. In my lifetime I have seen many changes connected to global warming. A big part of where I grew up has permafrost. The small village where my mother was born has sunk in and is now part of a large lake. I saw the old village of Kasigluk begin sinking in my short lifetime. The island where my maternal grandparents lived is mostly gone. A new Kasigluk was created almost a mile downriver from the old village. A new school, federally funded houses, post office and airport had to be built at a high cost.

The warming has affected the fall white fish runs on the Johnson River not far from Bethel. People there rarely fish for them anymore. The black fish creeks are almost nonexistent because of the changing river channels due to warming. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta has been invaded by beaver, which dam up the many small tundra creeks, disrupting the black fish runs.

Newtok, where my maternal grandmother’s family is from, and the village of Shishmaref need to be relocated at great cost due to erosion. Our elders link the erosion to changing weather due to warming. The melting of the permafrost also increases the cost of constructing homes and public buildings.

In rural villages, the cost of fuel to heat homes is high. So is the cost of electricity, which comes from expensive diesel fuel.

Continue reading: Clean energy can lessen Native suffering

From US DOE, Monday, August 20, 2010:

Last week as part of Vice President Biden’s announcement of 200,000 homes weatherized under the Recovery act, we asked you to send us your questions and comments about the weatherization process. Today, we’re following up with answers experts from the Department’s Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program:

1) From edmooney via Twitter: @Energy Besides caulking, what are the best values in weatherization for the Northeast region. #weatherization

Nationwide, the energy-efficient retrofits that consistently provide the best return on investment involve sealing gaps in the building envelope which allows conditioned air – either heated or cooled – to escape the interior of the home. States in the Northeast region, which on average have an exceptionally high number of heating degree days each season, are particularly susceptible to energy loss through poor air sealing of the building envelope.

These gaps in the building envelope can include joints between materials, gaps around doors and windows, and penetrations for piping, wiring, and ducts. A blower door test can be used identify these gaps and measure the aggregate degree of air infiltration into your home. Retrofit measures such as caulking, weather stripping, gaskets, and duct sealing can be used to seal these gaps and improve the energy efficiency of your home.

Continue reading: Response to Weatherization Questions

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, August 31, 2010:

Hospital visits for heart disease, stroke and lung afflictions in Fairbanks rise as the air quality deteriorates, according to new study by the state of Alaska.

A researcher with the state Section of Epidemiology combed over five years of records at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. She found that for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase of a harmful pollutant known as PM2.5:

• a 7 percent increased risk that someone under age 65 will visit the hospital because of stroke symptoms,

• a 6 percent increased risk for people over age 65,

• a 6 percent increased risk that someone under 65 will visit the hospital for a respiratory illness.

The examination of hospital visits is the first study looking at air quality health impacts in Fairbanks.

Other studies show that wood smoke is a major contributor to PM2.5.

“Basically, this study reaffirms what has already been demonstrated in similar studies performed outside of Alaska,” the study’s author, epidemiologist Rachel Kossover, said in a written statement. “People with heart and lung problems need to take air quality warnings seriously and follow the advice of local officials.”

From The Arctic Sounder, Wednesday, August 25, 2010:

The success of an innovative new home in Anaktuvuk Pass – which uses a wind power, solar panels and design features of traditional Nunamiut sod housing – is changing the way houses will be designed and built on the North Slope.

“This is a huge leap forward – I hope it has tremendous impact,” said Daryl Kooley, of the Tagiugmiullu Nunamiullu Housing Authority.

The house used just 87 gallons of heating fuel from November to June. Other homes typically use about 100 gallons of fuel per month.

It also cost a lot less to build – just $220,000, compared to a normal three-bedroom home in Anaktuvuk Pass, which runs upwards of $570,000.

The house was the prototype in an effort to find ways of building better, more cost-effective houses in rural Alaska, which “grew out of the fact that estimates for new housing were so extraordinary,” Kooley said. A modest, three-bedroom home in Nuiqsut constructed in the usual way, for example, can cost over $1 million to build.

That is a real problem in North Slope villages, which suffer over-crowded, crumbling homes in desperate need of replacement. To find a solution, TNHA teamed up with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, a nonprofit that works on developing housing designs for the circumpolar north.

“We are going to have diminishing financial resources for building in rural Alaska given the economic reality of the U.S. So how can we together address the high cost of housing? We can do that together so the future is a little brighter for these communities,” said CCHRC president and CEO Jack Hebert.

The Anaktuvuk Pass prototype house was the first structure built as part of CCHRC’s Sustainable Northern Communities project, a program begun in 2008 to engineer housing solutions for rural northern communities.

Continue reading: Taking the chill out of Arctic Homes

From NYTimes.com, Wednesday, August 18, 2010:

When it comes to saving energy, many Americans seem to get it — and at the same time they don’t get it at all.

That’s the takeaway from a new study by researchers from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University who found that people are far more likely to focus on switching off lights or unplugging appliances than on buying new bulbs or more efficient refrigerators. But people’s perceptions of the relative savings of various actions are significantly at variance with reality.

“Participants estimated that line-drying clothes saves more energy than changing the washer’s settings (the reverse is true) and estimated that a central air-conditioner uses only 1.3 times the energy of a room air-conditioner (in fact, it uses 3.5 times as much),” the researchers wrote.

Continue reading: Delusions Abound on Energy Savings, Study Says

From The Daily Green:

Serve potluck dishes made from local foods. Invite a farm family, or arrange a visit to a local farm sometime.

Then, play old-fashioned outdoor games and sing folk songs and modern tunes about gardens and farms and saving the Earth. Play board games like Earthopoly, Wild Seed Game, Harvest Time, Farmopoly and Gardenopoly. Make your own Environmental Jeopardy game, with everyone contributing questions, or download Earth Day Network’s free version. Check out, rent, or buy a DVD appropriate for all ages. Green Planet Films, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental education through film, is one of the best sources we’ve found.

For themes, search “eco dinners” or “green dinners” on the Internet and then choose a specific topic for links to discussion questions or guides. (Or browse around on The Daily Green!)

Additional sources of nature and environmental DVDs: Bullfrog Films and the Sierra Club.

More from The Daily Green: Host a Farm-to-Table Potluck Dinner

ASK A BUILDER

By CCHRC Staff

The “Ask a Builder” series is dedicated to answering some of the many questions Fairbanks residents have about building, energy and the many other parts of home life.

Q: What are the advantages of hot water infloor heat versus baseboard heating?

Radiant hot water (hydronic) floor heating systems’ costs are usually higher than baseboards, however they offer significant performance advantages.

The typical hydronic floor heating system consists of tubing installed in a looping pattern in the floor. This arrangement is specifically sized and spaced to release a given amount of heat from the hot water flowing through the tubes.

There are two primary types of installations, “wet” and “dry.” A “wet” system also is known as “slab heating” and involves embedding the tubing in a poured concrete or gypsum floor. “Dry” systems route the tubing either under or on top of an existing wood subfloor.

Depending on the insulative properties of the floor covering (such as carpet), dry systems may need to operate at higher temperatures to perform comparably to wet systems.

With both types of systems, insulation is often added under the tubing to insure that most of the floor heat travels in the desired direction, rather than into the soils around the foundation.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of in-floor heat is the comfort level. With such a large surface area emitting radiant heat very evenly, most occupants with warm floors tend to feel more comfortable even if the air temperatures are slightly cooler, which in turn may lead to lower thermostat settings.

From the energy savings perspective, hydronic floor heating runs significantly cooler than hot water baseboards.

For instance, the water temperatures in the tubing running through a concrete slab usually range between 80 and 130 degrees F while baseboards operate between 130 and 165 degrees F. Usually, the lower water temperatures needed for slab heating allow the boiler to run cooler.

A cooler running boiler has several advantages, such as less heat loss up the chimney when the boiler is in an off cycle. Similarly, the boiler has less “jacket loss,” where heat is lost from the boiler to the room Cooler water heating can also make the best use of a condensing boiler, which can operate at lower temperatures and generate efficiencies of up to 94 percent.

Conventional boilers top at around 87 percent. When it comes to conventional boilers, cooler operating temperatures produce less system stress, which can extend the service life of certain boilers.

Although the initial costs are higher, the longterm benefits of hydronic floor heating are worthy of consideration, and can also contribute to the value of the home.

Alaska HomeWise articles promote home awareness for the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC). If you have a question, e-mail us at akhomewise@cchrc.org.You can also call the CCHRC at (907) 457-3454.

From The Associated Press, Wednesday, August 25, 2010;

Sales of new homes dropped sharply last month to the slowest pace on record, the latest sign that the economic recovery is fading.The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new home sales fell 12.4 percent in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 276,600. That was the slowest pace on records dating back to 1963. The past three months have been the worst on record for new home sales.

The weak housing numbers worried Wall Street, dragging the Dow Jones industrial average below 10,000 for a second day.

Weak home sales mean fewer jobs in the construction industry, which normally powers economic recoveries. Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Continue reading: New home sales hit slowest pace on record

From The Tundra Drums, Friday, August 20, 2010:

If Alaskans aren’t at a crossroads politically, we’re drawing close. Most all candidates running for statewide offices this year have given due time to talk about the state’s energy future, since we’ve been living off of our energy past for so long and change is coming. A dwindling flow of oil down the pipeline makes it impossible to ignore. It’s the way the state pays for much of what it does, so it impacts nearly everyone. Two of the five questions posed to candidates by Alaska Newspapers Inc. deal directly with energy and how we acquire it.

We also asked them about other issues important to rural Alaskans: subsistence, fisheries, jobs. Every candidate running for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, governor’s office and lieutenant governor’s office was sent the same questions. Below are answers from those who responded.

Continue reading: Finding energy at the ballot box