Warm House
Today's field trips brought us to the campus of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. We ventured to the Cold Climate Housing Research Center http://www.cchrc.org/ According to their website, CCHRC "Promotes the development and advancement of healthy, durable, and economically sound shelter for Alaskans and circumpolar people."
PolarTREC teachers Lisa Seff and Juan Botella look at the Photovoltaic panels outside CCHRC. Check out the angle! I'm used to seeing solar panels that point up, these are angled for the low path of the sun through the Fairbanks sky.
Building a house in the polar region presents a wide array of challenges that we don't face in the lower 48, yet most homes in Alaska have been built using plans designed for homes in warmer climates. The folks at CCHRC are looking at better ways to address the unique needs of homeowners in harsh environments. The CCHRC is a home and office that functions as a living laboratory. Research conducted includes everything from energy efficient windows for people in Alaska's interior to building stable foundations on permafrost.
Not your average fireplace! This wood burning unit is specially designed to address the demands of heating a home in extreme cold. A small fire in this unit allows the rocks of the fireplace to radiate heat for hours.
A look at insulation retrofits. Something as simple as 6 inches of foam insulation can make a huge difference in keeping a house warm.
Thawing permafrost presents a structural challenge for concrete foundations. The folks at CCHRC were literally mixing and pouring new formulas for concrete while we toured the facility. The picture above shows a new type of concrete made with locally sourced materials, poured into a soda bottle mold.
A waste-water treatment facility in your basement! The Polar Regions are typically rural places, but septic tanks aren't very practical on permafrost. This unit processes all of a home's wastewater with an end product of gray water that can be safely discharged to the surrounding environment or even used to water plants.
At CCHRC, you can jack up your house should thawing permafrost cause your house to settle.
Some of the most interesting behind the scenes things I have seen come from musings on a white board.
We found this great map of Alaska on our way out the door. PolarTREC teacher Melissa Barker points to Toolik lake where both of our expeditions will be taking place this summer.
Cold Spider
Our second stop on the UAF campus brought us to the Museum of the North http://www.uaf.edu/museum/. Coincidentally the museum was featuring an exhibit on spiders which was of special interest to me in light of my newly assigned research topic.
Sitting down with an ice sculpture of a crab spider.
Crab spider ice sculpture. Photo courtesy of Juan Botella.
Arctic Bluegrass
I'm a long way from the Carolinas, so I wasn't exactly expecting to see any bluegrass on this trip. After dinner, a group of PolarTREC teachers returned to the UAF campus for some nightlife to see the bluegrass band of Toolik Field Station's veteran Cody Johnson. It was a lot of fun to listen to the guy who taught us about layering our clothing now picking a banjo!
Cody Jonson, Alaska Project Manager for our arctic logistics provider, CH2M Hill Polar Services.