This winter, 15 Elim households have another option for warmth and sustainability thanks to technologies installed by the Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (RurAL CAP) Enhancement & Innovation grant project.
Weatherization Assistance Program
April 17, 2024
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About the Project
Elim, Alaska, is cold by any measure, with long, dark winters in which temperatures dip into the negatives. This winter, 15 Elim households have another option for warmth and sustainability thanks to technologies installed by the Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (RurAL CAP) Enhancement & Innovation grant project.
Challenge
RurAL CAP is the only community action weatherization agency in Alaska, largely serving families in the western part of the state. Communities in this region experience brutal winter storms, battered by the unforgiving ice of the Bering Sea.
“The storms that come in off of the sea are frightening,” said Shelby Clem, RurAL CAP project manager. “Even houses made with the best building materials would suffer in that harsh environment.”
Many residents use fuel-oil heaters, which have a long history in the region. However, residents run the risk of running out of fuel in major storms that limit travel and disrupt the supply chain. Another problem that homes in these communities face is moisture buildup. Poor ventilation, especially in the parts of the house furthest from the heat source, allows moisture to condense on cold surfaces, creating the perfect breeding ground for mold and mildew.
Solution
The Weatherization Assistance Program Enhancement & Innovation grants provide funding for awardees to demonstrate innovative weatherization techniques and technologies that often enhance the health and safety of occupants while improving the energy efficiency of low-income households. This funding sets the stage for the Weatherization Assistance Program to develop best practices with these technologies and encourage wider adoption.
RurAL CAP saw this grant as an opportunity to assist more remote and underserved communities in western Alaska, using their funding to serve Alaska Native families with low- and very-low incomes in the two rural Alaskan communities of Elim and Koyuk. Their project aims to reduce energy consumption, monthly bills, and reliance on fossil fuels through the installation of cold-climate air-source heat pumps and energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) in 45 homes. Through this project, about one-quarter of the two communities’ weatherization needs will be addressed.
Positive Impact
In their first year, RurAL CAP installed 15 heat pumps across Elim. The new heat pumps provide residents with an additional, more-efficient heating option for their home that can be used as long as the clients have electricity.
“We are not eliminating their primary method of heating, so they can always have that as a backup,” said Clem.
RurAL CAP aims to tackle homes’ moisture buildup problems with the installation of ERVs. ERVs work to improve indoor air quality through a balanced ventilation approach in which outdoor air mixes with indoor air, often pushing warm air to areas of the house that need it. This circulates the air more effectively and lowers the chance of mold and respiratory infections.
Clem and his team plan to return to Elim in spring 2024 to check in on clients and install their ERVs. In 2025, the team will travel to Koyuk to install both heat pumps and ERVs in that community as well. There, they hope to track the energy savings from their work and further explore the effectiveness of these technologies in Alaska’s challenging climate.
“We’re just happy to have the opportunity,” said Clem. “We have been wanting to do something like this for a while, and this grant gave us the kick-start and the confidence to do it.”