Tag Archives: Green Building

Apply NOW to live in the UAF Sustainable Village!

Do you seek a different style of on-campus life? Do you want to know how to grow your own food? Are you excited about monitoring and reducing your energy consumption? Are you aware of your personal carbon footprint? If you answered yes to these questions, consider applying for residency for the 2012-2013 academic year at the UAF Sustainable Village!

By Cornerstone on June 15, 2012

Rendering of one home at the UAF Sustainable Village

The UAF Office of Sustainability is now accepting student applications for residency for the 2012-2013 academic year at the new UAF Sustainable Village. This opportunity is for students seeking a different style of on-campus life, wanting to know how to grow your own food and monitoring and reducing energy consumption.

The UAF Sustainable Village, UAF’s newest student housing, is a student-led and -driven initiative. Students have been integral to all stages of the process: from concept to design to construction. It is a demonstration of environmentally sustainable technologies in a residential setting and will provide hands-on experiential learning opportunities. Students will collect and disseminate information about sustainable building and living best practices, and encourage others to live in a more sustainable way.

The Sustainable Village is open to UAF students, sophomores through graduate. Students interested in living in the UAF Sustainable Village for the 2012-13 academic year need to complete this form and attach a signed UAF Sustainable Village Social Contract /Agreement. Selection is based on application and an interview with the Sustainable Village Committee.

Students interested in being part of the innovative, nationally recognized Sustainable Village and feel personally committed to sustainability, are encouraged to sign up. For more information visit the Sustainability Village website for more information or contact sustainability director Michele Hebert at mahebert@alaska.edu or 907-388-6085.

Sustainable Village Week 9

During Week 9, we installed ceiling vapor barriers, continued plumbing and wiring work, and started working on the electrical hook-up for the homes. After heavy rain over the weekend, and the ground is still frozen a few feet down, the site was temporarily transformed into a mud pit. This made it interesting to navigate heavy equipment and dig a trench for the power line. Nevertheless, we will have electricity by the end of the week!

Student carpenter on her view of the UAF Sustainable Village

Takpaan Weber is a UAF student from Anaktuvuk Pass, a small Iñupiat village in the Alaska Brooks Range. She describes her experience working on the UAF Sustainable Village and other low-energy experimental prototype homes she has helped build in rural Alaska.

Sustainable Village Week 6: trusses and T-shirts


During Week 6, we started framing the third (SE) house and laying out trusses for the two northern homes. Two more UAF students   began working at the site for a total of four. The crew is jelling and construction is on schedule! It warmed up to 65 degrees this week, and the T-shirts and bug dope came out. Next week we are planning to finish roofs on the northern homes and begin plumbing and electrical work. Then we’ll add sheathing and trim. Meanwhile, we’ll begin framing the fourth and final house, which will likely have the Reina Wall–a double wall with thick blown-in cellulose insulation developed by local builder Thorsten Chlupp of Reina, LLC.

What you need to know about correct ventilation and installing duct work

Q: My home has condensate on the windows. I want to put in a new bathroom fan, but I need to know the correct way to vent a bathroom exhaust fan and the correct size of motor the fan should have.

The airflow through a bathroom fan is measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM).

A bathroom needs a minimum of 50 CFM intermittently or 20 CFM continuously. Fans are labeled with a CFM rating, but the duct work you attach to the fan will affect its flow rate.

If you run ducting in long, 30-foot runs and/or lots of 90 degree turns, you will need to double the fan capacity to 100 CFM. Ducts for a bath fan exhaust can be run with plastic, such as ABS or PVC, or metal, such as 29gauge warm air snap seam.

Ducting made of smooth materials will let more air flow than the flexible slinky-style duct materials, which are only appropriate for very short lengths, approximately 5 feet.

Another use is for the connection between the fan and the ducting, in order to reduce vibration.

If the ductwork passes through the attic, or any unconditioned space, it will need to be sealed and insulated to prevent heat loss.

There are several local companies that can assess your situation and install the right system or sell the appropriate hardware if you want to do the job yourself.

If, after installing and using your fan, you continue to see condensation on your windows, you may want to consider a more substantial ventilation system for your home. Today, most building codes require some form of mechanical ventilation.

This can range from an appropriately sized exhaust fan operating with fresh air inlets installed in the living spaces to a Heat Recovery Ventilation System (HRV).

Regardless of which type of system is used, it must be sized and installed to meet the needs of the home it will be serving.

The truth about soy-based insulation

Q: I heard that there is spray foam insulation that is made out of soy rather than petroleum.

Is this available anywhere in Fairbanks and does it work well?

One of the latest advances in spray foam insulation is a partial soy-based insulation. However, “soy-based” can be misleading, as the “petrochemical-based” is more accurate.

Spray foam works by combining two components, commonly referred to as the A & B components. The Acomponent is a diisocyanate (a petrochemical), which is mixed on a one-to-one ratio with the B-component that can contain modified natural or petroleum-based oils. In order to get the chemical reaction to work, the proportion of natural ingredients cannot be too high. Spray polyurethane foams can approach 40 percent natural oil, such as soy or canola oil. The total mixture, when foamed, is likely to be on the order of 20 percent to 40 percent natural oil content, depending on the recipe.

In terms of its effectiveness, the spray foam provides an R-value that is as high — or sometimes higher — than foam that do not contain soy. Spray foams are also measured in their resistance to water absorption, called a “permeability rating.” The rating of spray foam that contains soy is comparable to foam that does not contain soy.

In Fairbanks, there are spray foam installers that use soy in foam. Contact a local spray foam business for additional information.

Energy rebate program is still alive in Alaska

Q: I signed up for the home rebate program months ago and haven’t heard from anyone since. Has the program ended or are the energy raters just really busy?

When you signed up for the rebate program, you put your name on a waitlist.

Your name will be given to an energy rater when funding becomes available for you to participate in the program.

Then your assigned energy rater will call you to set up an appointment for your energy rating.

So the rebate program hasn’t ended, but all the funding has been set aside for other program participants. Funding becomes available for new participants when others let their deadline pass without collecting their rebate. You can check your status on the waitlist by visiting www.akrebate.com or by calling 1-877-257-3228.

Once there is funding available for your rebate, an energy rater will call you to set up an appointment. When the rater performs your rating, be sure to keep your receipt. You will need to send it, along with a copy of the rating, proof that you own your house and Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s (AHFC) As-Is Energy Rating Reimbursement form to AHFC.

It is important to mail these documents as soon as possible to ensure that funding is set aside for your rebate.

Q: I have a lot of moisture and ice building up on my windows, especially when it is really cold. Are my windows bad?

Not necessarily. Single-pane windows are prone to icing up if with even the smallest amount of humidity inside a home.

These windows are not recommended for this climate. Double and triple pane windows with icing problems can be a sign of a broken pane or broken window seal.

Also, the home may not be getting adequate ventilation, which causes condensation on windows when indoor moisture levels increase.

This column has focused on winter indoor air quality several times over the past year. To read our past advice on this topic, visit our website at www.cchrc.org.

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

Anchorage elementary getting wind turbine

From The Associated Press, Tuesday, December 21, 2010:

Begich Middle School in Anchorage has won school board approval to install a wind turbine.

The Anchorage Daily News reports it’s part of a federal program to teach renewable energy. The turbine will generate enough electricity to run up to eight computers.

Alaska is one of 11 states in the Energy Department’s Wind for Schools program.

Sherrod Elementary in Palmer also has a turbine. Schools in Juneau are working with the Coast Guard station’s wind turbine.

Continue reading: Anchorage elementary getting wind turbine

Group developing efficient homes for rural Alaska

From Alaska Journal of Commerce, Saturday, December 10, 2010:

With high fuel prices and harsh winter climes, constructing energy-efficient housing in rural Alaska communities can be a difficult task that is compounded by the prohibitively high costs.

In Fairbanks, Jack Hebert and a team of engineers with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center are rising to the challenge, designing and building prototype homes and empowering communities to build more of them for themselves.

In 2008, the CCHRC began its Sustainable Northern Shelter Program. CCHRC designs sustainable home technology, with its aim being to reduce the amount of fuel used to heat rural homes.

The group contracts with local crews to get the homes built. In fact, CCHRC officials don’t actually build the homes; with input from the locals, they design it and the locals themselves build them.

Consultations with the community help establish what their cultural needs are, among other things, Hebert said.

The goal, Hebert said, is to enable local residents to build their own sustainable homes without the aid of outsiders.

 “The wisdom of the people who have lived here for 10,000 years is important,” Hebert said.

Continue reading:  Group developing efficient homes for rural Alaska