The second annual Sylvania Socket Survey was just released, illuminating consumer attitudes and behaviors when it comes to energy-efficient, green lighting. According to the report, a whopping 74% of respondents are now using compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), although the same fraction are not aware of the impending congressional ban on incandescent bulbs that begins in 2012. Perhaps not surprisingly, there still isn’t that much knowledge about next-generation LEDs.

The following workshops will be held from 6-8 pm at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, 1000 Fairbanks Street, near West Valley High School and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Call 907-457-3454 for directions.

February 1, 2010: Building Science Basics

February 2, 2010: Air Tightness

February 3, 2010: Ice Dams

February 4, 2010: Lighting & Appliances

February 8, 2010: Heating & Hot Water

February 9, 2010: Doors & Windows

February 10, 2010: Insulation

February 11, 2010: Ventilation

By CCHRC Staff

Q: Why is it beneficial to have south-facing windows on a home?

Because of the orientation with the sun, south-facing windows bring in both light and heat, which are important for homes in our climate. If you have a lot of north-facing windows, you’re going to lose a lot of heat with not a lot of heat gain.

The amount of heat your home gains from the sun should not be underestimated and sunlight also is good for your mood.

At the same time, some homes can become overheated in months like March, when there is no vegetation to provide shade, and the sun comes directly through your windows. Also, in the summer, the hot sun can overheat your home if your roof does not have enough overhang to shade your windows. Again, trees and other vegetation will help here as well.

Before you build your home, get a sense of where the sunlight falls in both winter and summer. If you are a morning person and you need that morning light to help wake you up, you’ll want to place your windows appropriately. If you like to entertain in the evening summer sun, then put windows in the appropriate place for that. It’s not just about getting light to see and heat your home, think about how light will affect your life in your home.

Q: I want to put a chimney in for a stove, but there are a bunch of things in the way, including a beam. How can I get around that?

It’s always frustrating when you’ve got the perfect place for a stove, but something is in the way. Ideally a chimney should be a straight shot for easy cleaning and proper drafting, but sometimes it just isn’t possible and you’ve got to put an elbow in the pipe. The best place to put an elbow is at the bottom because it allows you to scrub the chimney top to bottom when you clean it and you can still get inside the stove and vacuum out that elbow piece.

Sometimes you can run a stovepipe directly out the side of the house and up the exterior wall. How well this works is case dependent. If there is too much pipe in an uninsulated space, then the pipe can get cold and as a result, some of the smoke will get cold which can cause creosote build up and create a chimney fire hazard. Also, a fire started with a stovepipe that is cold may not draft properly so it may smoke and smolder and even introduce pollutants into your house if it’s not an airtight stove.

LEDs use less power, have a longer life and are more durable than compact fluorescents. Initially there have been some costs that have kept them from reaching the broad market, but every year brings new innovations in LED technology, bringing the cost down and improving the quality of light they produce. Compact fluorescents contain mercury, so disposing of them is a problem, while LEDs are fairly non-toxic. LEDs also work better than the average bulb in cold temperatures, which is important in our climate.

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

Environmental savings can be elusive, and the benefits and costs confusing. To help households wade through the information, consultants armed with stepladders and gadgets are selling advice on energy efficiency, indoor air quality and even methods for creating an eco-conscious wardrobe.

The field of personal and home eco-consultants is relatively new. GenGreen, a Colorado company that offers a national directory of businesses marketing themselves as green at gengreenlife.com, says it has just over 3,000 listings under the umbrella term environmental consultants, up from 657 when the database was started in 2007. They include energy auditors, health and wellness experts, interior designers and “eco-brokers,” real estate agents who specialize in green homes. While real estate agents can get training and certification as “eco” or “green” by trade organizations, and states like New York run energy audit programs with accreditation rules, there are no industry standards for most eco-consultants, who can range from environmental engineers to the self-taught.

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Is your head swimming with all the talk about energy costs, weatherization, and energy rebates? Are you looking for a good, comprehensive source of information that explains the basics of energy use in your home and what steps you can take to save energy? If so, I recommend the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings published by New Society Publishers for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

You can use this guide in a number of different ways to help save energy. It will help you (1) consider ways to reduce your heating bills, for example by improving insulation levels or replacing windows, (2) evaluate whether replacing existing appliances such as refrigerators and electric hot water heaters can help save on your electric bill, (3) reduce energy use by operating existing appliances more wisely— such as maintaining the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at optimal levels and using the dishwasher’s energy saver setting, (4) decide whether you can reduce your energy costs by replacing major systems such as your boiler or furnace, (5) understand and evaluate the recommendations that an energy rater may have made for your house, and (6) calculate reductions in your carbon footprint from all of the steps you choose to take.

The book begins with a general discussion of the environmental impacts of energy use (and waste) in our homes and the monetary savings possible by reducing these impacts. The authors then present individual chapters on the building envelope (insulation, caulking, windows, and doors), ventilation, heating and cooling systems, water heating, food storage and cooking, dishwashing, laundry, lighting, home electronics, and other energy uses in the home. Each of these chapters has good introductions to how the different systems in our houses work, specific measures that we can take to improve or replace them, and many pointers to other sources of information.

The guide is brimming with informative tables and helpful illustrations. One of the best is the Home Energy Checklist for Action – this is a “best seller” available for free at the PORTAL (Portal on Retrofits, Training and Loans, located on Driveway Street, across from the old train station). The checklist gives some ideas of simple things that you can do today, this week, this month, and this year.

You can reference the guide at the Builder’s Resource Library in the Cold Climate Housing Research Center located at 1000 Fairbanks Street. The 9th edition of the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings by Jennifer Thorne Amann, Alex Wilson, and Katie Ackerly is also available for purchase ($10 – $18) from the Alaska Building Science Network, Amazon Books, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Gulliver’s Books, and New Society Publishers.

John Davies is Research Director at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC). Visit CCHRC online at www.cchrc.org or call 457-3454 for more information.

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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The Home Depot Inc. has started a national program to help people recycle compact fluorescent light bulbs at all of its 1,973 U.S. stores.

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