Promoting sustainable shelter in Alaska
BY CCHRC Staff
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner June 25th, 2009, Section A3
Vapor barriers and house wraps are a critical part of controlling moisture and air flow in and around your home. Working in conjunction with your walls, floor, and roof, the right type and application of these products will help you to conserve energy, prevent mold growth, and maintain the structural integrity of your home. Not using these products or using one incorrectly can wreak havoc. Continue reading
BY CCHRC Staff
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner June 18th, 2009, Section A3
It’s building season. For some, that means finding just the right spot for constructing a home. In Fairbanks, that isn’t so easy. Unlike other places where location, view, and neighbors comprise the major considerations for choosing a building site, Interior Alaska presents a more fundamental question: Will the land itself even support a house? The presence of permafrost can ruin the best laid plans. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner June 11th, 2009, Section A3
Here’s a primer on how to choose more environmentally-friendly paint. Paint ingredients reflect the demands we place upon paint. Outdoor paint must withstand sunlight, heat, cold, and rain. Indoor paint is scuffed, exposed to humidity, and subject to the whims of fashion. All paint produces fumes; some are more noxious than others. Close label reading and careful selection can help you identify the best product for the job, with the fewest undesirable side effects. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner June 4th, 2009, Section A3
I don’t fish. I don’t fish because fish depress me, particularly unhappy fish. In part, this has something to do with having once witnessed my father club a fish repeatedly, chasing it madly around and around a small unstable rented boat. By the time the fish succumbed, the boat’s gunnels had dipped twice beneath the waterline. Our feet were soaked; the boat was sinking in Lake Erie. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner May 28th, 2009, Section A3
Don’t keep an open bucket of smoldering ashes in your house. If it doesn’t burn your house down, the carbon monoxide emissions can kill you. This simple fact escaped me during my first winter in Alaska. I thought it was a shame to waste the heat of unspent coals, so I kept an open bucket of coals inside and went to bed. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner May 14th, 2009, Section A3
It’s not easy recycling in Fairbanks. Just as soon as you load your vehicle full of cans, bottles, and plastics to drop off at the last place you took them, it turns out that whoever accepted recycling before has since stopped, disappeared, or is serving time. In all fairness, it’s not easy being a recycler, either. Unlike other places where recycling options are plentiful and profitable, Fairbanks is remote enough to make recycling a costly business. After all, it takes labor and fuel to process and transport recycling. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner May 7th, 2009, Section A3
The worms are squirming, the pollen is flying, and your XTRATUFs are muddying. Gardening is a great outdoor activity. Yet, gardens require a lot of water. So, if it doesn’t rain regularly, you can find yourself in a bit of a bind. If you have plumbing, watering is a snap. But what if you want to conserve resources, save money, or don’t have a ready supply of water? Simple: Build a water catchment system. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner April 29th, 2009, Section A3
Alaska’s energy resources amount to more than the oil and gas that have so much transformed the state during the past 40 years. One largely untapped resource is wind power. Large-scale operations, such as a growing wind farm in Kotzebue and plans for a 1.5 megawatt wind farm on Fire Island near Anchorage underscore the potential of wind energy in Alaska. But what about residential wind power? Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner April 23rd, 2009, Section A3
“Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the centre of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius?”
These lines are from the campy adventure novel, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne. Science is cool, but science fiction is cooler. Writers apprehend the future in their fantasies, often articulating what scientists later invent. Though writing in the 19th Century, Verne appears to have anticipated modern-day air conditioning, submarines, and television. Continue reading
BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner April 16th, 2009, Section A3
Boilers today offer a wide range of customized options to maximize efficiency. If your boiler has an old pilot light that stays lit all the time, you’re probably a good candidate for a replacement boiler or, at least, a retrofit. Alaska’s many heating days justify paying for the most efficient system possible upfront, since the extra money you spend for efficiency gains will be paid back several times during the system’s operating lifetime. Continue reading