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Old 01-23-2011, 02:35 PM
 
Location: Interior alaska
6,381 posts, read 14,477,383 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gobrien View Post
Anchorage has natural gas lines but I don't think Fairbanks does.
There is a few subdivisions in Fairbanks that have gas, but it is trucked up to Fairbanks from the Anchorage area.

I think they are trying to get a jump on when the gas line from up North comes though Fairbanks, they may have a long wait still....
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Old 01-23-2011, 02:53 PM
 
Location: Not far from Fairbanks, AK
20,243 posts, read 36,896,329 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakster View Post
RayinAK - My in laws have the boiler for water and air heat system in their house. It dumps the hot water into an electric hot water heater. Now they have a much more efficient natural gas setup. Although I doubt many areas in AK have natural gas lines? (Notice it is a question, not a statement)

I was just wondering how people keep the house warm when everyone goes to work or school? I wouldn't think leaving a wood fire alone is a good idea?
Natural gas is available in Anchorage, and it's trucked from Anchorage to Fairbanks. So, there aren't natural gas distribution lines around Fairbanks. Most homes in the interior use a boiler or a furnace to heat their homes, and both furnaces and boilers can be rigged so that domestic water is heated by these units and then stored in a tank. This tank usually is a 50-gal (or so) electric water heater that is not powered by electricity since it's serving as a reservoir.

During the summer months when the boiler does not have to heat the home, one can turn the boiler off, and plug-in the electric water heater to save fuel. But since electricity is quite high in Fairbanks these days, most home owners let the boiler heat the water all year, with the heat zones turned off during the summer.

What one can do is to insulate all the domestic hot water lines, and the hot water tank (electric heater). I have done this, plus have incorporated an electrical device called "heat monitor" to the boiler. This unit checks and matches the ambient temperature outside the home to the boiler's water temperature, and brings it up/down accordingly to reduce boiler running time. Also, I plan to add a heat-recovery unit to the domestic hot water lines going to the tank. In this case, some of the boiler's possible heat loss is "recovered" by this unit and this extra heat is added to the hot water system.

But in general most oil-fired boilers, furnaces, and water heaters aren't very efficient. The most efficient units run on natural gas or propane, which in turn aren't cheap products in the interior of Alaska. That leaves home owners with no choices but to heat their homes with heating oil, wood, wood pellets, and coal. Toyo and Monitor stoves are very efficient. These use #1 heating fuel, but don't use as much fuel as a boiler or furnace. The only problem is that they heat the air in a room or house, not the water. To accomplish this task, another a water heater (made by the same companies) can be used.

One of my coworkers built a new home recently, and he decided to use a propane boiler. The propane is delivered to an underground tank outside the house, and the boiler heats water, plus the entire home in a very efficient and economical way. Instead of baseboard heaters, the floor is heated throughout the home. Then he burns wood in a wood stove in the living room for a few hours each day.

Last edited by RayinAK; 01-23-2011 at 03:09 PM..
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Old 01-23-2011, 04:36 PM
 
4,715 posts, read 10,462,360 times
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Very interesting read RayinAK...

We use underground propane tanks here, but they are very expensive to install. They are primarily used for generators when the power goes out. Not a big fan of burying a 1000 gal. pressurized propane tank in the wet ground, but that is just me. AK is a different place so it may not bother me there as much.

Here not having a/c in the summer can be amost as dangerous as not having heat in AK during the winter.
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Old 01-24-2011, 03:32 PM
 
23 posts, read 40,073 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RayinAK View Post
You can always install a ceiling fan to move the hot air around.
Yup, this is the plan! I have just been too busy to get it done myself and too cheap to pay someone else to do it
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Old 01-24-2011, 08:41 PM
 
Location: Not far from Fairbanks, AK
20,243 posts, read 36,896,329 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakster View Post
Very interesting read RayinAK...

We use underground propane tanks here, but they are very expensive to install. They are primarily used for generators when the power goes out. Not a big fan of burying a 1000 gal. pressurized propane tank in the wet ground, but that is just me. AK is a different place so it may not bother me there as much.

Here not having a/c in the summer can be amost as dangerous as not having heat in AK during the winter.
We have the same problem (wet ground) in Fairbanks, and vicinity, except for the homes up in the hills surrounding Fairbanks. That's where my coworker built his house.
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Old 01-24-2011, 10:14 PM
 
Location: NP AK/SF NM
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There are natural gas distribution lines around Fairbanks. .....just none coming INTO Fairbanks from anywhere. Fairbanks Natural Gas has a couple of LNG storage/vaporization facilities in town (Van Horn Road area) from where they send gas into the lines after it is trucked up from Cook Inlet. The building I work in on Peger Road is heated with gas.
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Old 01-24-2011, 11:08 PM
 
Location: Not far from Fairbanks, AK
20,243 posts, read 36,896,329 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akpls View Post
There are natural gas distribution lines around Fairbanks. .....just none coming INTO Fairbanks from anywhere. Fairbanks Natural Gas has a couple of LNG storage/vaporization facilities in town (Van Horn Road area) from where they send gas into the lines after it is trucked up from Cook Inlet. The building I work in on Peger Road is heated with gas.
Yes, but these aren't the typical distribution pipelines (very short runs not from the city of Fairbanks, but from private businesses). I believe that American Tire has a natural gas tap at their building. In other words it's quite limited and expensive. Amerigas sells some, and so a few other companies.
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Old 01-25-2011, 11:17 AM
 
Location: NP AK/SF NM
681 posts, read 1,196,938 times
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Here's some info on where gas is in Fairbanks....still pretty limited:

Fairbanks Natural Gas - Service Areas

I know FNG would like to expand further, but it all takes $$$.
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Old 01-26-2011, 12:35 AM
 
Location: Naptowne, Alaska
15,603 posts, read 39,650,043 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakster View Post
Although I doubt many areas in AK have natural gas lines? (Notice it is a question, not a statement)

I was just wondering how people keep the house warm when everyone goes to work or school? I wouldn't think leaving a wood fire alone is a good idea?
We've got gas on the Kenai Peninsula, in all the communities along Cook Inlet. And in Sterling which is centrally located on the peninsula. I don't know about Cooper Landing or Seward or anything in between. They are still doing some minor gas drilling along or near the coast, and have put in a pipeline from Anchor Point to Kenai. Which in turn also runs from the peninsula to Anchorage. It's getting harder to find a residential area on the peninsula that doesn't have gas put in.
Before they put in the gas lines along the highway...when I was a kid, all we heated with was wood. We'd stoke that stove as full as we could get it at night, or before going to work or school, then leave the house. With the stove turned down low we never had any problems. Keeping the stovepipe clean and flamables away from the stove itself it really poses no concerns.
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Old 01-26-2011, 01:14 AM
 
Location: Not far from Fairbanks, AK
20,243 posts, read 36,896,329 times
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There is a big problem in Fairbanks in relation to wood smoke, smoke from every boiler and furnace in the Borough, from diesel vehicles (heavy equipment, city buses, etc.), and from the coal-burning power plants. To make things worst, the thermal inversions in Fairbanks are notorious. The problem can be resolved if natural gas can be brought to Fairbanks and vicinity via pipelines. In this case, boilers, furnaces, and some power plants. could be converted to run on natural gas. Unlike most others, natural gas burns clean.

As it is now, people have no choice but to burn heating fuel, wood, coal, and pellets, since the natural gas available at a few places in Fairbanks is quite expensive because it has to be transported to this area from Anchorage. Last Friday I got around 400 gallons of heating fuel, at a cost of $1,500 (43.25 per gallon because I get a pretty nice discount).
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