HOUSE of the MONTH

JANUARY-MARCH 2004

The featured home for the first quarter of 2004 is located a 30 to 40 minute drive from Whitehorse, Yukon on the Takhini River Road. It's a log building with a southern exposure. You can see from the photograph, it has large glazings facing south with a prow type front and two banks of photovoltaic collectors, which are Siemens SP70s. It also has an existing heating system, which is a forced air oil furnace, a domestic water storage tank, and a propane hot water heater for hot water. You can also see in the background, a windmill, which is a one-kilowatt wind system. The PV system is 1.2 kilowatts and there is a 2400-amp hour battery with trace inverters to provide alternative energy backup.

This home was one of three examples used for a wonderful design charette to encourage and incorporate the use of renewable energies into housing, which was sponsored by the Yukon Energy Solutions Center, December 4th through 6th 2003. A report of this entire effort is available at this website: www.nrgsc.yk.ca/offGrid/results.php. There is also other information available at the main website: www.nrgsc.yk.ca/offGrid/ on how this design charette was set up and a discussion of the participants. This was a wonderful experience for the participants and is a result of a major effort by the Canadians to integrate renewable energy into housing for northern applications, something that Alaskans would do well to emulate.