Living in northern Alaska just got easier.

[Domeguy]

http://www.adn.com/article/20150103/new-super-insulated-homes-rising-across-alaskas-north-slope
This article discusses some of the problems of building in some the harshest climates...like Canada. ST, are they pushing to use more energy efficient products in the Great White North?

[Sniper-T]

Yep yep. both with new build and retrofit. local and Federal Gov'ts along with the utilities are all throwing money to homeowners to up the efficiency.

[ak474u]

I've got a pretty heavy energy efficiency background and I can say that even though I'm not a man made global warming nut, it makes sense to a point, to make things as efficient as you can afford. I'm all about conserving resources, but I'm also all about saving money. I'm about to go R-60 on my attic insulation, my original insulation is pretty badly settled, it's around an R-22 now, so it's time, and my electric bill is showing it. We already have radiant barrier, and the house is only 7 years old. I'd say our electric bill has gone up 20% and our kWh rate has gone down, so it may be 25% more kWh usage now. We're all electric with no gas available.

[bacpacker]

I look at things similar to AK. When we got hit with the hail storm back in 2011, we went back with some foam insulation under our new siding. Don't recall the R value. We also went with a gray metal roof to reflect the heat load in the summer. It seems to have helped. When we built we went with 2x6 framing and loaded as much insulation as it would take. I'd rather spend a dollar on something I want instead of funding the power company.

[ElevenBravo]

The best way to survive brutal Alaska winters is to live in Florida and watch Alaska on Netflix...

EB

[jamesneuen]

Lol I concur

[Sniper-T]

lol! EB... but there ain't no hurricanes up here, nor in Alaska!

[jamesneuen]

Minor detail

[robsdak]

lol! EB... but there ain't no hurricanes up here, nor in Alaska!

true, we get hit about every 6 yrs. on average. i will take a Hurricane hit, than spends days stuck home because of the cold.

[Sniper-T]

In the last 8-1/2 years that I have lived in the country, I have been late to work twice, and never missed a day because of the weather.

Our last REAL blizzard, one that shut the city down for 3 days was in 1997. I spent 80 straight hours on my snowmobile, taxi-ing doctors and nurses from home to the hospitals and back.

[Domeguy]

Major pats on the back and Attaboys to you for that. But I'm sure most of the hours were spent going to the "Great White North Feline Hospital", where they specialize in the care of under privileged kittens.

[Sniper-T]

that was about 1/2 of my efforts.... they provided the meat for the hospital cafeterias. Hospital food never got so many rave reviews!

the cat-chetorie, was the most popular dish!

[Domeguy]

that was about 1/2 of my efforts.... they provided the meat for the hospital cafeterias. Hospital food never got so many rave reviews!

the cat-chetorie, was the most popular dish!

Yes, that is a great dish. I have had the feline chefs prepare that for me before down here. I just happen to have a picture of Chef Puss-Puss (I think he is French, and therefore has trained in European cooking) from the last time we ate there.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f226/gantsum/132136658c69fa231ff9be36c5026398_zpsnw74jhxp.jpg[/IMG
They were featuring a fish dish that night as I remember. Oh...is this one of the chefs you gave so much help to one of those days? I see there was a lot of snow, and also see why you felt the pull of your heart to help!
[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f226/gantsum/79276697e712d76d6c42a9d99dc233cf_zpsdt1edega.jpg

[jamesneuen]

So, I don't even plan on building my house in an extreme climate but I was still looking into doing a super-insulated home. I was also looking at, Earth Cooling tubes to make it cooler during the 90 degree days in the summer. All I would need is a small solar panel to make the needed positive air pressure at the beginning of the system via a fan.

I put a lot of planning and such into how to position the house, plant trees around it, place windows, overhang angles for winter sunlight use and a rocket mass heater to keep it warm on the coldest days. The wife calls me a bit crazy for it but I want to be able to survive without gas, electricity, or food from outside sources for the most part. Homesteading is what a lot of people call it these days but the amish have been doing it for ages just as a way of life.

The more time I spend looking the more I realize how easily we could survive without any outside help by just preparing ourselves properly. The only reason to hold a job would be to pay for the house and land till it's paid off.

[Domeguy]

When I built our dome, I had 6 in. of sprayed foam in the entire dome shell. It really has helped with the energy bills. My electric bill is half of what a house half of this size uses.

[jamesneuen]

That spray foam is nice but it's EXPENSIVE!! The house designs I looked at use a "false" wall that is spaced a foot in from the real one. Then you fill inbetween with loose fill cellulose and do the same thing on the ceiling. The only major design differences I saw were that you have to access the attic from outside the house, no recessed lighting fixtures, an insulated slab and I would have to pile more than a foot in the ceiling so that I could refill the walls as they compact down a bit.

[Domeguy]

It seems to me you could still get into an attic if you just built a box between the false ceiling and the real one and don't fill it with the insulation. I would think you could also have recessed lights also. It might be a local code thing, but don't recessed lights normally sit in an attic floor and have insulation around them? Just wondering.
Sprayed in foam was expensive, but over a few years for me, it paid
for itself. Since the dome is like living in an attic, ie there isn't a ceiling, spray insulation was pretty much the only way to insulate without having to put roof vents in the side of the dome for ventilation for the insulation. To me, vents meant leaks.
I once saw on TV a super insulated house, which had 2 feet of insulation everywhere, and they could raise the temperature in the whole house just by lighting one candle.

[ak474u]

That spray foam is nice but it's EXPENSIVE!! The house designs I looked at use a "false" wall that is spaced a foot in from the real one. Then you fill inbetween with loose fill cellulose and do the same thing on the ceiling. The only major design differences I saw were that you have to access the attic from outside the house, no recessed lighting fixtures, an insulated slab and I would have to pile more than a foot in the ceiling so that I could refill the walls as they compact down a bit.

Spider from johns manville is a moist blown fiberglass that won't settle like cellulose does, and doesn't have any of the nasty chemicals like cellulose does. Remember cellulose is newspaper, and it has to be treated for fire resistance.

[jamesneuen]

I figured cellulose wasn't the best option but it's only the "tree hugger" sites that have tons of info on them. I would consult with a builder before doing anything. Just to make sure it's up to code and won't fall apart

[Domeguy]

I know of two other "tree hugger" insulations. Just after I had mine done, I heard of a spray foam that is made from a type of beans if I remember correctly, and the other is like regular pink insulation made from recycled blue jeans...no fiberglass to stick in your arms.

[jamesneuen]

Like I said, whenever the time comes that I can build the house I'll have to consult with a builder since most of what I have researched will be obsolete in a year or two. The cellulose gives a higher R value than most others for almost the same price as the blown in fiberglass but the rock wool option looks pretty good too