Local tour puts energy-efficient businesses, ideas on display
Published Monday, April 28, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!
Kelly Egger said he’s always felt Americans live a bit too large for their own good. Owning a home and small business — particularly ones that cost him more each year to heat and electrify — has only increased his desire to cut energy use through smart construction and remodeling, he said.
“I really think there are low-tech solutions ... to making a difference in how we live,” he said.
Egger’s interest in living a more sustainable life led him to join a group of about two dozen people Sunday on a tour of homes and businesses where owners are trying to use less energy and reduce their impact on the environment. The group spent two hours at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center before hitting the solar-powered Pike’s Waterfront Lodge and an energy-efficient home north of Fairbanks before ending up at Chena Hot Springs Resort, which has been built to run on geothermal power.
Cole Sonafrank, an assistant director at the research center, noted the rising cost of petroleum products, such as heating fuel, is making super-insulation, alternative home-heating systems and other progressive construction techniques smarter financial investments for people already looking to reduce carbon emissions.
The tour was part of the Sustainable Living Conference organized last week by a student task force at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The conference came six months after a visiting state housing official estimated the average home in Fairbanks could improve its energy efficiency by about 35 percent. The Department of Energy, meanwhile, has estimated people in the United States consume six times more energy on average than the rest of the world.
Sonafrank said the stone-and-mortar, wood-burning fireplace at the research center’s lobby likely draws more interest than any other part of the multimillion-dollar building. He suggested the interest in efficient, clean, wood-burning heating systems will only grow as the price of heating fuel rises and as chronic air pollution brings Fairbanks closer to almost-inevitable control measures on inefficient wood-burning stoves.
There remains, however, a price barrier for everyday homeowners — the center’s wood-burner cost around $15,000 — but researchers are trying to make masonry wood-burners more affordable, Sonafrank said.
“It’s very time-intensive” and requires a professional mason, he said of building the heating systems. “If you just slap something together, it will crack.”
Ian Wright, a Fairbanks carpenter preparing to build a house for his family, said he hopes to use a masonry fireplace to heat his air space and hot water tank. He noted the research center’s stove is so efficient and clean that researchers say they haven’t had to empty the ash traps in two years.
“There are European masonry heaters that don’t need to be cleaned for decades,” Wright said.
Sonafrank also outlined for the tour a nontraditional way of insulating and waterproofing homes’ and buildings’ exterior walls, one of a number of progressive construction techniques on demonstration at the center. The method focuses on fastening rigid foam insulation and a vapor barrier outside the studded walls instead of, respectively, between studs and on the inside of walls. Sonafrank said the technique prolongs the lives of metal and wood frames — and, by making the structure last longer, saves on long-term remodeling costs.
Egger said he’s encouraged by efforts taken locally to develop options for builders and homeowners in and outside of Fairbanks.
“This is a community where you’ve got a lot of people doing the right thing,” he said.
Contact Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
I switched to a wood boiler last fall and should have the $7,000 cost recouped by Christmas this year. There are many high-efficient models out there now. Check out Greenwood, Tarm USA, EKO, and Garn.
"I like a source of fuel where the price, supply and quality are controlled by one guy: me." unknown
What are the thermodynamic - or, better, hydrothermodynamic - implications of having a structure in our climate with insulation and vapor barrier outside a building's structure?
I thought the reason we build our structures with the vapor barrier as close as possible to the INSIDE of a wall was to ensure that the inevitable "frost line" - the 32ºF region that is somewhere between the warm air of the house and the cold air of the outside - was isolated from any moisture. That conventional knowledge runs counter to Sonafranks's statement regarding his technique prolonging the life of a wood frame - you absolutely don't want warm moist air cooling and dropping its moisture around that wood frame.
I'm sure he's correct....I just don't understand how.
Thank you for your interest and comments. First, to remove credit from where it isn’t due, the Residential Exterior Membrane Outside insulation TEchnique (REMOTE) has nothing to do with me. It is an Alaskan refinement of the Pressure Equalized Rain Screen Insulated Structure Technique (PERSIST), which itself is a refinement of the older and somewhat problematic Exterior Insulation Finishing System (EIFS).
There is no conflict between this wall system and the BigOldMooseHunter’s true statement that “you absolutely don't want warm moist air cooling and dropping its moisture around that wood frame.” The confusion came from it not being clear that not only is the vapor barrier moved to outside the structural sheathing, most of the insulation is moved outside (beyond the vapor barrier) as well. You do not want warm, moist interior air to come into contact with anything that is below the dewpoint. This means that indeed, there needs to be significantly more insulation between the vapor and the cold exterior than is located inside between the studs.
Exactly what fraction of insulation is OK to have inside the vapor barrier depends upon the actual temperatures and humidities the building will be exposed to. However, one of the advantages of REMOTE walls is that the structural components are all inside the vapor barrier, in indoor conditioned space, and so even if rare condensation events did occur (e.g. the outside temperature dropped to below -50 degrees) the moisture could and would dry to the inside. A key word in that sentence was “rare.” Having too much insulation inside the vapor barrier is clearly worse than having too little. CCHRC conducted a pair of studies between 2004 and 2006 using our mobile test lab in Juneau which demonstrated the effectiveness of REMOTE walls as well as showed their limitations.
For more information please visit our Web site at http://www.cchrc.org. We have a four page description of REMOTE walls, including detail drawings at http://www.cchrc.org/Reports/snapshot07-....
Thanks,
Cole Sonafrank, 457-3454
That's clearer now, and thank you for the web links. Thanks also for the gentle correction of my words "frost line", when your "dewpoint" is, of course, the more appropriate term.
Fascinating also that you have discovered the perils of too much insulation - at least, when on the wrong side of the vapor barrier.
Guess I'll have to visit your CCHRC.....hope the techniques you folks are championing are not beyond the technical grasp of, uh, BigOldCabinBuilders.......
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.