Sustainable North

From the New York Times on Monday, December 29, 2008:
Call it CSI: Thermal Police — energy experts armed with mostly low-tech tools but strong sleuthing skills, finding flaws that let the air inside a house go through a full exchange with the outdoors twice an hour, instead of once every two or three hours.
Correct those [...]

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From the New York Times on Friday, December 26, 2008:
In Berthold Kaufmann’s home, there is, to be fair, one radiator for emergency backup in the living room — but it is not in use. Even on the coldest nights in central Germany, Mr. Kaufmann’s new “passive house” and others of this design get all the [...]

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From buildingGreen.com, retrieved on Tuesday, December 23, 2008:
Three of the products this year save energy, including a low-cost, solar water-heating system; a combination heating, water heating, and heat-recovery ventilation system; and a system for monitoring real-time energy (and water) use in buildings. Water saving products are represented by a line of rainwater storage tanks—the first [...]

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Another posting from Fairbanks homeowners Rocky Reifenstuhl and Gail Koepf.

There are many things to consider once you have decided to build, starting with location. 
Assess the neighborhood, covenants and surrounding properties.  What utilities are available?  Is it on a bus route or within an easy commute to your job?  Does view potential play a role?  [...]

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Another posting from Fairbanks homeowners Rocky Reifenstuhl and Gail Koepf.

To Build or Not to Build, that is the Question.  If you have to ask that question, you should probably stop reading here & hire a realtor.  The amount of time and energy involved in building your house can be tremendous, and that cost must not [...]

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Another posting from Fairbanks homeowners Rocky Reifenstuhl and Gail Koepf.

There seems to be something about the selection process regarding those who are drawn to Alaska and settle here, that gives them the drive to design and build their own home in a place where shelter is so critical for survival.  There have certainly been failures, [...]

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BY Susan Keltner, Portal On Retrofits Training And Loans
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner December 18th, 2008, Section A3
Have you decided on a New Year’s resolution yet? Here’s an idea: resolve to make your home more energy efficient in 2009. It’ll save you money, make your home more comfortable and more valuable. Afraid you’ll lose motivation [...]

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From Yale Environment 360, retrieved on Friday, December 20, 2008:
Yale Environment 360 asked a wide-ranging group of environmental activists, scientists, and thinkers to answer the following question: If you were advising Barack Obama, what would you tell him are the most important environmental and energy initiatives that he should launch during his first 100 days?
Click here [...]

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From the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, December 16, 2008:
With the nomination of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu for energy secretary, President-elect Barack Obama made sure no one missed the message in the résumé.
“His appointment should send a signal to all that my administration will value science,” Obama said Monday at a Chicago news conference. “We will make decisions based [...]

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Gail Koepf and Rocky Reifenstuhl, Fairbanks, Alaska homeowners, are building a new home using sustainable, energy efficient techniques. CCHRC staff are filming aspects of the construction for use in a future “Best Practices” video about homebuilding in the North. The following is the first entry from Gail’s ongoing journal about the project. We will continue [...]

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