Random facts pulled from the notes of our writers. Click the links on the right to read the related stories.

from “You at 50 Below"

 Barrow, Alaska, is the farthest north point in North America.

 The average year-round temperature in Wainwright, Alaska, is just above 15 degrees.

 “When you’re exposed to extreme cold for a long period of time, your metabolism goes up,” says researcher Tammy Greene.

 A faster metabolism increases blood flow, which adds degrees to your core temperature.

 “The northern cultures, the Eskimo or northern Siberian cultures, have up to 13 to 40 percent higher metabolism,” says Greene, who teaches human physiology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

from “Warmth on the Rocks"

 By removing dust-sized particles, or fines, coal burning customers get more heat out of their product.  If the fines were not removed, they would blow away in the burning process.

 The Flameking coal furnaces and boilers that are sold in Alaska are specifically designed to burn sub-bitminous coal, which is found in Healy.

 “A ton of coal is equal to approximately three cords of black spruce.”

from “Damn, It’s Cold Up Here!”

 If your car is not plugged in at minus 38 degrees, it will wheeze like an alloy asthmatic.

 Fairbanks local bus service is free during the cold months to save air quality from idle exhaust and the amount of electricity it takes to plug vehicles in.

 Strategies to keeping warm: tape sheets of shrink-wrap plastic around window sills, and tighten with a hair dryer. Wear enough layers to clothe the homeless in Florida.

 Without affordable oil, we won’t have heat and without heat we die.

from “Cost of Heat”

 Nearly one-third of Food Bank of Alaska customers report having to choose between buying food and paying for utilities or heat, according to a survey released in February.

 There has been a steady increase in demand for the Alaska Heating Assistance Program’s grants to low-income non-tribal households. From 2000 to 2005, applications have increased 22.7 percent, from 9,033 to 11,089.

 By one expert’s math, oil production hit its all-time peak on Dec. 16, 2005.

 Nationwide, the average household using heating oil paid $187 more this winter than last, a 16 percent increase, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

 In December, the national average price of heating oil was $2.47 per gallon; in Alaska, it was $3.39, according to a state Department of Commerce study.

 In 1950, 21.9 percent of households used wood for heat, according to census data; in 2000, only 3.7 percent did.

 Solar retrofits cost an additional $15,000, but after five years, the solar cells usually pay for themselves.

 In general, residential natural gas prices are cheaper in Alaska than in the Lower 48, where prices are $5 to $13 more per 1,000 cubic feet of gas, according to ENSTAR Natural Gas Company. Alaska’s prices are rising, however. That could change with the installation of a natural gas pipeline.

from "Galena:
Rural Woes"

 Randy Esmailka of Galena says he got hit with three lighting bills in one month for over $400.

 In a given year, Galena burns around 600,000 to 650,000 gallons of diesel a year for electricity at a cost of about $1.5 million, says city manager Marvin Yoder.

from "Kotzebue:
Cold Reality Moves Elders"

 The evolution of energy in rural Alaska:  blubber oil to coal, and from coal to expensive fuel.

from "Point Hope:
On the Edge of Alaska"

 The cost of heating fuel, compounded with the high unemployment of Point Hope, Alaska, equals an alarming abandonment of the traditional Native lifestyle.

from "Venetie:
Rural Crisis Mode"

 Lights on a timer. In Venetie, where winter is 22 hours of dark per day, when fuel is low the village lights turn off at 8 p.m. and don’t come back on until about 6 a.m.

 Government assistance is a way of life in rural Alaska, where fuel prices and unemployment are sky-high!

 “Forty gallons lasts 10 days, and less than that in the winter months,” said tribal leader and previous chief of Venetie, Robert Frank.

 For the population of Venetie, wildfires claimed much of the good timber in the area; good firewood is as far as 30 miles away.

 Venetie spends about $60,000 a year on fuel.

 The price of fuel is having a negative affect on every aspect of living in rural Alaska. “Airline travel itself has gone up almost double since I’ve been here, and we’re seeing fewer flights come in,” said Whitwell, the Tribal Energy Program Coordinator for Venetie.

 The high price of fuel splits families apart.

from "Kotzebue:
Propelling Warmth"

 Wind power is the fastest growing form of alternative energy in the United States.

 In Alaska, 180 villages run diesel generators for electricity.

 Barges bring in bulk diesel fuel to coastal villages once a year, topping off large tanks before winter begins.

 With no trees in the area for burning, wind is Kotzebue’s only alternative to fuel.
One turbine, like the turbines on the Kotzebue farm, can cost $90,000, not including the shipping and installation costs which can be an additional $50,000. Still, in area like Kotzebue where energy costs are very high, wind becomes more practical. 

 As of 2005 the Kotzebue wind farm had saved about $190,000 a year in electricity for the community of 3,000.

 With average wind speeds of 20 mph, Wales is the only place in the United States where 100 percent wind has been generated.  This means the wind produced enough energy to make the diesel generators shut off.

There are two basic types of wind electric turbines: vertical-axis, or "egg-beater" style, and horizontal-axis (propeller-style) machines. Horizontal-axis wind turbines are the most common, and the type used on all Alaskan wind farms.

 A 10-kW wind turbine can generate about 10,000 kWh annually at a site with wind speeds averaging 12 miles per hour, or about enough to power a typical household for a year.

from "Venetie:
Capturing Rays"

 With sunlight 24 hours a day in the summer, the farthest north tribal owned solar energy program in Venetie is proving to be quite successful.

 Solar energy has helped Venetie save over 75 percent on fuel usage at the washeteria, where residents get sanitary water, wash and dry clothes.

from "Galena:
Nuclear Energy?"

 Installing a small-scale nuclear reactor will replace Gelena’s six diesel electrical generators and cut electricity costs from $0.34 to $0.10 per kilowatt.

 Toshiba's reactor, the untested 4S, for “super safe, small and simple,” can go 30 years without refueling, leading some to compare it to a battery.

 The cost of building the reactor would be $25 million, but because the nuclear “battery” would probably require little maintenance, Galena hopes the operation costs would be minimal.