Sustainable North

Ask a Builder By Cold Climate Housing Research Center Staff  Q: I heard a full refrigerator uses less electricity. Is that true? When it comes to fridges and freezers, always try to keep them full. These appliances measure the temperature in the storage space and adjust to keep that temperature below a certain level. The [...]

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From The New York Times, Monday, April 12, 2010: The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock. Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, [...]

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From The New York Times, Monday, April 12, 2010: Like most other sources of alternative energy, the wind can be intermittent. It does not blow uniformly, so power output from wind turbines rises and falls. And when the wind doesn’t blow at all, output drops to zero. Intermittency is not much of a problem now [...]

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From Alaska Dispatch, Wednesday, March 31, 2010: The methane gas produced by rotting trash smells awful and can even blow up, but Anchorage’s Solid Waste Services has a plan to put that gas to work. SWS plans to take the gas emitted at the Anchorage Regional Landfill and use it as energy. Estimates say the landfill’s [...]

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From efficiencyfirst.org: HOME STAR is proposed new legislation to create jobs in existing industries by providing strong short-term incentives for energy efficiency improvements in residential buildings. The program will move quickly, with a minimum of red tape, and will act as a bridge to long-term market development of existing industries. This initiative establishes a $6 [...]

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From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, April 13, 2010: Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins revised his air pollution control plan, adding a provision prohibiting dense chimney smoke that creates a nuisance for neighbors. Hopkins said Monday that he plans to ask for assembly approval in June. The measure, Ordinance 2010-17, sets limits on chimney smoke opacity, [...]

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Alaska HomeWise: Ask a Builder By Cold Climate Housing Research Center 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. I have heard of the BEES regulations in Alaska, though I don’t know quite what [...]

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Alaska HomeWise: Ask a Builder By Cold Climate Housing Research Center 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. My walls have black lines where dust has collected. What could cause dust to collect [...]

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Alaska HomeWise: Ask a Builder By Cold Climate Housing Research Center 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. I heard that metal-framed windows are a bad choice for Alaska. Why and what should [...]

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Alaska HomeWise: Ask a Builder By Cold Climate Housing Research Center 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. Recently, I was scoffed at for wanting to insulate my septic tank when I install [...]

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