“Stony Brook Southampton will certainly be among a limited number of campuses with this level of commitment to sustainability,” says Judy Walton, acting executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. “Sustainability is really a change in the mind-set of how we operate. It’s like seeing the world through a new lens.”

But most significant is how Southampton, a part of Stony Brook University, is writing into its courses the concept of sustainability. Students study it when they study literature, economics, architecture or statistics.

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Interest is surging in the potential of Alaska’s powerful river currents to generate electricity using underwater turbines, but some researchers and resource managers are cautioning against unintended consequences if interest too quickly turns into commercial development.

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“What I’m trying to do is save the planet in my own way,” da Luz said before an audience of a few dozen people who assembled at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center for a demonstration.

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CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night.

A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods.

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A solar-powered car on three wheels arrived in Fairbanks on Wednesday evening, creating a spectacle as the spaceship-like vehicle made its way down the Johansen Expressway to the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.

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This is the second article in a series on residential wood heating. The series will include information about firewood, different heating appliance options, applications, installations and other aspects that will hopefully help us conserve our resources, keep our environment healthy and…keep us warm.

One of the questions asked most often when people are trying to sort through their options to heat their home with wood is, “How much does each system cost?” The answer is, “It depends.” The cost can vary significantly from simple woodstoves to highly-engineered wood pellet burning boilers.

A good place to start is by looking at the economics of wood as a fuel and the potential savings that could be possible for a couple of the different systems that are available. The idea with this approach is that if you know the operating cost of an appliance upfront, you can factor that together with the initial purchase price to better understand what the overall long-term cost will be. It might make sense to choose a stove or appliance that has a higher initial cost but is more efficient and uses less wood for long-term savings.

Here is a brief comparison of the cost of wood versus using #2 heating oil. For every 1,000 gallons of oil consumed for heat it would cost $4,320 at current prices. To produce the same amount of heat with wood it would take approximately 7 cords of firewood in an EPA approved woodstove. Assuming that you purchased firewood at a price of $250 per cord, the cost would be $1,750 and the resultant savings $2,570.

For a pellet stove you could expect to use about 383 bags of wood pellets to produce the same amount of heat. Assuming a price of $5 per 40 lb bag, the cost would be $1,915 and the savings $2,405.

For those with the time, desire and ability to cut their own firewood, there’s more substantial savings. If you harvest wood with a wood-cutting permit from State Forestry it will cost $5 per cord. So using the same EPA approved woodstove your heating cost would be reduced to $35 with a savings of $4,285. Of course there are additional expenses and wear and tear on equipment and vehicles but with such a large potential savings most would consider them negligible.

An additional consideration in the overall picture is convenience. And like most other things, adding convenience to wood burning comes with a price. For now, I am only comparing two space heating appliances that can do the same job but for which the economics can be quite different.

With the woodstove you can purchase firewood or cut your own. With the pellet stove you are limited to only purchasing your fuel. You are limiting your potential savings by choosing a pellet stove but you are also adding convenience because most can operate automatically and unattended. These large differences in operation and costs make deciding which to choose a highly personal matter depending on your own situation.

David Misiuk, P.E. is the Wood Energy Specialist at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC).

The article can also be read in its entirety here on the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer website.

Here’s an amazing fact: About 10 percent of the energy used by a regular incandescent light bulb goes to produce light. The rest is wasted as heat. Though heat is always nice in our cold winters, it is very inefficient heat at a very high cost.

Energy-efficient lights produce more light than heat with the electricity they use. As a result, they can provide the same amount of light as a standard bulb while using less energy. Since lighting can make up as much as 20 percent of the house energy bill, conservation here can amount to considerable savings.

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Passing even more of private energy costs in Alaska to state government is a policy fraught with long-term peril, but since the current emergency has made action inevitable, the Legislature should adopt a simple, limited program with a clear expiration date.

The program that best fits those criteria would pay only for the cost of heating oil above a particular price. The payments would not go to individual Alaskans but to oil distributors, which already keep the necessary records. The dealers would charge customers a set price, say $2.50 per gallon, and collect the rest of the market price from the state.

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FAIRBANKS — The last remaining Nunamiut Inupiat Eskimo community settled Anaktuvuk Pass just 60 years ago, trading in nomadic life for village life in a valley tucked 2,200 feet up in the central Brooks Range. In the one-airstrip town with no roads in or out, some 300 residents live crowded into 1970s era wood-frame houses perched on the windswept, arctic mountain pass.

But innovative designers now want to help the villagers build homes following a modern design that is actually inspired by the sod igloos that the Nunamiut first carved from the land.

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A few days ago I received a phone call from a remodeling contractor who was very concerned that quite a number of Fairbanks residents were buying cheap slider type windows from one of the newer building supply stores.  He suggested that we issue a consumer warning on this issue.

I shared his concern regarding sliding windows having lived in an old home with single pane double-hung windows with exterior storm windows.  The windows were covered with ice until we learned to apply a shrink wrap clear plastic window kit.  This solved the icing problem but still allowed a lot of heat to pass around the perimeter of the windows.  This summer we replaced those windows with triple pane units with 2 low E coatings and argon gas in the two chambers.  We did a fair amount of research prior to making this investment.

The first thing that I did was contact Richard Seifert at the Cooperative Extension Service and asked him for a copy of a 22 page publication that he had written about Windows as part of a Building in Alaska series.  (HCM-04458)  I quote directly from page 3:

“Sliding windows, whether horizontal or vertical, tend to have the highest air leakage rate because positive closure and compression is more difficult.  Turn/Tilt, casement, awning, and hopper windows tend to be more airtight, since more pressure can be placed on the weather-stripped joint.  Any warping of the opening sash will also affect the air tightness of an operable window.  Compressible weather-strip made of…EPDM compounds, are desirable for cold climates.”

Charlie Deer, former owner of the Alaska Window Company, is cited by Seifert as a contributor to this publication.  I asked Charlie about his take on sliders and he said that an inexpensive sliding PVC window sash can bow so much in very cold weather (think Fairbanks winter)…”that you can throw a cat through the crack!”  He went on to say that “Fiberglass windows are now available in Fairbanks that don’t suffer from bowing as the (unreinforced) PVC windows do when subjected to differential temperatures.  Eliminating bowing of the sash greatly enhance air tightness.”

The problem is the weather-stripping has to be loose enough to allow the window to slide.  If warm, moist air leaks out through a crack the window will freeze shut.  Keep a hammer ready for egress in the winter.  Or buy an opening window with good, compressible weather-stripping and good quality hardware that locks the window closed in multiple locations.  Also be aware that fixed windows are less expensive, have better resistance to heat flow or higher R-value and are air tight.  You only need operable windows for egress or to promote air flow in or out of the house.

I also talked to Dr. John Davies, Research Director at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.  John confirmed my understanding that consumers should buy the best possible window that they can afford. To support this observation Dr. Davies contacted eight different local suppliers and asked for costs and specifications of a variety of windows that are sold in Fairbanks.  He came to the following conclusion:  “The higher the R-value of a window the better the payback and the higher the fuel cost the quicker the payback.”  He also learned that cost is not the only indicator of quality.  Some low performing windows cost more than better windows.  Davies calculated the payback on an R-3 (pretty good) window versus an R-4 (good) window.  At $3.50 gallon oil an R-4 window saves enough energy to pay back the difference in cost of an R-3 window in 5 years.  As the cost of oil goes up the payback time decreases.  At $4.00 oil the payback time is 4.4 years.  At $5.00 per gallon pay back is 3.5 years.  When oil reaches $7.00 the payback time is 2.5 years.  The best locally manufactured windows have an R-value of 6.67.  These (very good) windows will payback even more quickly. 

You have probably heard about the contractor who installed new high R-value windows for a woman but never got paid.  After a year of sending invoices and waiting patiently for payment the contractor finally contacted the woman who protested that he had told her that her new windows would pay for themselves in a year.  That is why most window manufactures and installers like to collect 50% down and the rest upon competition.

To sum up, it is better to pay a little more for windows in the beginning than spending more on heating your home in the long term.

Mike Musick is a longtime home builder in Fairbanks and an Outreach Consultant at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.

The article can also be read in its entirety here, on the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer website.