Group shows Alaskans how to live without utility bills

WASILLA — A local group is hoping to show people just how realistic a goal it is to live in Alaska, even in the winter, without a utility bill.

The Alaska Center for Appropriate Technology is holding a workshop Thursday on building what it refers to as a Net Zero home. The workshop is from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Agate Inn. A similar event is set for the next day at the Carr Gottstein Lecture Hall at Anchorage Pacific University.

“The key is minimizing the energy you need and then making up the difference with solar and wind,” said the man in charge of putting the events together, Harvey Bowers.

He said he’s done just that with the multiple buildings of his Agate Inn, which is also ACAT’s headquarters.

“I generate about half my electric with solar and I’m setting up to do about, I’m hopeful, 80 percent of my heating with solar,” Bowers said.

But even that doesn’t quite match the efforts of Fairbanks’ Thorsten Chlupp, who will be at the workshops. Chlupp is building what he says will be the first Alaska Net-Zero home — not dependant on electricity or natural gas.

“I’m still considering myself in the baby learning stages,” Bowers said.

Philip St. John, ACAT’s president, said the group doesn’t consider itself opposed to resource development.

“ACAT’s not against Alaska drilling or producing oil, we just don’t want it to be wasted on burning it,” he said.

Instead, petroleum products should be used for things like nylon and fertilizer, where it can be used for decades.

“We believe that’s a wise use of fossil products,” St. John said.

Both St. John and Bowers said the biggest key to building this way is to avoid waste at all costs, which means everything has to be as energy efficient as possible.

But it also means trying some things you might not have heard of. For instance, a water tank is a great place to store excess heat.

“Alaskans had never heard of the concept of thermal mass storage for solar thermal collectors,” before ACAT arrived, St. John said.

Bowers said that has worked so well for Chlupp that he often ends up with too much heat.

“He’s had so much heat he’s had to dump it in his yard,” Bowers said. Fairbanks has had a fair bit of snow this year to say the least, but you wouldn’t know it to look at Chlupp’s house. “In front of his house is all melted out.”

Previous events in the series, Bowers said, drew 120 people or so. He hopes this week’s will draw similar numbers, which is pretty good, considering ACAT is a small group.

“Whatever the group is interested we try to pursue,” Bowers said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.