Wood

Tags

biomass, cordwood

Many people in the Interior know that burning green wood is going to add creosote to their chimney and be inefficient (as the combustion is often expending many BTU’s on driving out moisture in the fibers rather than being thrown out for space heat). And many know that the best level of moisture is below 20% in any prospective logs.

With respect to burning,  what about different types of wood?  Black Spruce is often full of pitch, yet fairly easy to cut up. Birch splits well yet adds a fair amount of ash with its bark. And while many people don’t like poplar or Cottonwood, it too can be heated enough to drive out moisture.  (If you have any tips from personal experiences on burning wood, please add it to the comment section).

Pellets often will have reduced moisture by almost half of that amount due to the manufacturing process. Though pellets have specifically made stoves for their automatic feed and burning,  there are now pellet baskets which allow you to hand load and burn pellets in your regular cordwood stove.  Check for reviews on their efficiency.

 

An Alaskan distinction in national housing…..

Tags

sanitation, septic

According to an article headlined (by B. Bryne), which has shown up in several web locations, Alaska leads the nation in the number of outhouses (per person). In fact, 12% of  Alaskans interviewed in the 1990 Census had  three times more than any other state. Next was West Virginia at about four and a half percent. Unfortunately, the last two decennial Census surveys didn’t continue to check on septic system with their questioning!

Yet in the 2014 American Community Survey (known as the ACS), almost a half million citizens lacked complete plumbing facilities. This survey offsets the Census, which is taken at the beginning of each decade and has a somewhat different sampling method. The latest ACS found that Alaska leads in the percentage of people without running water; in fact, 3.8% of our state’s residents go without.

The Census and ACS look at the U.S.  But for a worldwide perspective, almost 950 million people are without an indoor toilet. One option to an outhouse for Alaskans (that have access to 110v electricity) is to check into composting toilets. The small bit of electricity is usually used to operate a dryer and small fan for ventilation in the decay vault. While there are samples of homemade experiments on YouTube, you can buy a fiberglass, manufactured unit for around a couple thousand dollars.  These units have about a quarter century of success and are used in Scandinavia, Alaska, and Canada due to compromised soils that make septic field placement difficult!

If you are interested in outhouse construction, give me a ring at 474-6366 and I can relay unto you what I have collected. (There may be a  future publication on outhouse construction/considerations …).

Lights out?

Tags

blackout, electricity, Remote energy

Ted Koppel, long time journalist and TV reporter, has currently a sobering book about……..electricity!  Though the New York Times review frowned on Ted’s  book (which he noted is not an analysis but rather a weaving of anecdotal tales),  others have been taking him seriously.  Here is what CNN has posted: http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/02/cyber-attack-u-s-power-grid-tedd-koppel-the-lead-live.cnn.

Regardless if it is from an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) explosion or computer cyber attack on utilities and smart grid controls, his work does think through what would happen if that daily living item we all take for granted- reliable electricity distribution- was out across residential, retail and government establishments for some time.  Not that we all have to have a bug-out residence to live like a survivalist, but the book is probably a good promotion to get folks to think about remote energy and what they can have on hand if an earthquake, snow storm, terrorist, nuclear attack, etc… ended up taking out the road system grid in Alaska (or our small village micro grids that rely more and more on digital technology for their power generation).

If nothing else, it may be worth looking at some of the reviews.  Think of taking a remote energy workshop.  Put away a generator and other mechanical parts, possibly protected in a Faraday Cage…..   And of course, irregardless of a nefarious attack as Ted imagines it, everyone should have a one week survival kit- including not only foods and first aid items but some sort of energy source(s) for heating, cooking and lighting!

Alaskan tribal (renewable) energy

Here’s something that may be of interest to Alaskan tribes…..The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy and the Western Area Power Administration has been offering webinars this past year for tribes.  The final one will be on at Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 9a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Alaska Time.

Tying into this webinar may help with any questions on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan (CPP) and may have implications per regulations with tribes. Part of the CPP will attempt to reduce carbon pollution from power plants to mitigate climate change. (It is a first in going after power producing sites in lowering carbon emissions)

Tribal communities are considered ‘stakeholders’ as the government assesses that tribal health, economic well-being, and cultural traditions are tightly intertwined with the natural environment, and thus would be strongly affected by changes in the ecosystem.  There is another aspect in that tribal lands have an estimated 5% of U.S. renewable energy generation (potentially) -which could possibly replace a portion of the energy produced from fossil fuel power plants.

The webinar presenter will be Jana Ganion, Energy Director for White House Climate Action Champion Blue Lake Rancheria (CA).

Some believe that the CPP opportunity for tribes incentives for clean energy development are good, but  tribal governments obviously have a  direct federal-tribal structure excluding public comment process. This is something that  is being looked into.  If you are interested, the contact information to tie in is at : https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/121519694

Where it all starts with radon being an indoor air quality concern

Tags

indoor air quality, Radon., uranium

I’ve been in contact with several people involved with radon this past week in various state departments/divisions.  One of the main issues has been how to relay what we have learned about radon test score distributions in the state and how that can be communicated to health professionals as well as residents.

One state has figured out how to provide a kind of radon hazard potential map which is based certainly on known test scores, but it also takes into account the geology. For radon concentrations to be a home problem, half of the necessary factors are specific to the home itself.  But to get radon gas to the home site,  the two necessary factors involve the soils and presence of the source product- uranium.  When there is no uranium below a housing area, then there will be no problem.  So it makes sense that to overlay the presence of uranium (and strata levels it is at) along with soil types onto the location of building sites would be helpful in looking at geographical potential of radon issues.

But what I’ve learned is that there is no definitive map as to where pockets of uranium, their amount, or extent are present.  The best indication geologists can reasonably utilize is estimating uranium loads by looking at locations of the type of geological formations which uranium typically accompanies. Unless there are uranium deposits that are being mined in an area, it is simply too costly to use precision locating methods for uranium under down below. And thus uranium’s byproduct of radon gas is not easily traceable to it’s origin when thinking in terms of lot locations.

So the answer I have to give people when they call to ask if their property is at risk for radon complications, I have to rely on the old slogan, “The only way you will know if you have a radon problem is to test!”