Mountain Village Small Home Design CCHRC is working with the Asa’carsarmiut Tribal Council in the lower Yukon community of Mountain Village to design a small “starter home” as an alternative to the standard 3-bedroom home found in most of rural Alaska. The home will be geared toward young couples, elders, and singles and can expand…
Chefornak Head Start Building CCHRC is helping design a new Head Start building for Chefornak, a Yup’ik village of roughly 400 in southwest Alaska. Chefornak sits on the Kinia River, just a little upriver from the Bering Sea, in a region that has become extremely susceptible to erosion in recent years as sea ice retreats…
Insulation Monitoring in Tununak This project looks at the moisture performance of a thick truss wall with blown-in fiberglass insulation over 2 years in a wet, windy climate. With cold winters and wind-driven rain and snow, the climate of southwest Alaska is harsh on houses. The most likely point of building failure is moisture-driven, as…
Engineering Research Center Planning The Alaska Center for Energy and Power initiated an effort to develop an Arctic Engineering Research Center (ERC) in Alaska that would work with communities facing challenges of a warming climate. The ERC would provide tools and resources to help communities decide whether or not to relocate. CCHRC advised on housing…
Arctic Dual Hood for Heat Recovery Ventilation This project aims to develop a new consumer product for ventilation systems: The Arctic Dual Hood. Dual hoods are vents that combine the ventilation intake and exhaust into a single wall penetration; they are intended for Heat Recovery Ventilation and Energy Recovery Ventilation (HRV/ERV) systems. Dual hoods make…
Energy Efficiency Programs Impacts Report The Cold Climate Housing Research Center produced two reports showing the value of two energy efficiency programs offered by the state from 2008-2018: The Home Energy Rebate Program and the Weatherization Program. Over 10 years, the Alaska Legislature invested $629 million into these programs to help Alaskans save energy and…
Secure and Resilient Power Generation in Cold Regions Working in collaboration with Construction Engineering Research Laboratory and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) staff, researchers with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the Cold Climate Housing Research Center will carry out a techno-economic assessment of new energy options at Fort Wainwright. Researchers will…
Home Energy Rebate Program Energy Efficiency Measures The Home Energy Rebate Program retrofitted nearly 27,000 homes in Alaska, saving Alaskans $261 million in energy costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 3 billion pounds from 2008 to 2018. This project analyzed which energy efficiency measures were actually implemented in this program for the first…
Biomass Greenhouse Handbook CCHRC produced a handbook for school districts and other organizations about how to build and operate a biomass-heated greenhouse. The project is funded through the Alaska Energy Authority and the US Forest Service. The handbook covers everything from planning a greenhouse to financing, construction, growing produce, and incorporating lessons into school curriculum. The…
Sustainable Priorities for Alaska Rural Communities CCHRC helped synthesize energy efficiency retrofits in the two rural villages of Anvik and Hughes. With funding from the Denali Commission and the State of Alaska, the communities were able to complete energy audit recommendations on several community buildings. CCHRC’s role was to document the energy audit recommendations, retrofits, and energy…
