(SitNews) Craig, Alaska - Mark your calendars for Saturday May 6th, from 10 am until the afternoon, and plan to be at the Craig High School for an exciting event promoting air source heat pumps as a clean, energy-efficient technology for your home or business.

Southeast Conference, USDA Rural Development, and others will be hosting a special “Heat Pump Expo” for Prince of Wales Island. This consumer-centric event is designed to provide Prince of Wales families and businesses with information on how to use energy-efficient air source heat pumps to provide an affordable, environmentally sustainable source of electricity generated at local hydroelectric projects. The event will include installers, financial institutions offering loans, and agencies in a “business expo” style format, providing a “one stop shop” for consumer info on heat pumps. Additionally, the event will feature an educational webinar featuring information from installation and utility professionals, which will be simulcast from Prince of Wales, Kodiak, Anchorage, and Kotzebue.

The event will feature special guest speaker Dana Fischer, Program Manager for the Efficiency Maine Trust, which runs a major heat pump conversion effort for the State of Maine. Mr. Fischer will be talking about heat pump usage in Maine, which has a similar climate to SE Alaska. Fischer will be reviewing key successes, lessons learned, and opportunities for regional application and proliferation of this energy efficient technology.

A heat pump is an energy efficient heating system that many southeast Alaskans are beginning to install in their homes, business, and community facilities. A heat pump works like an “air conditioner in reverse” – it uses a refrigeration cycle to extract heat from a cold space (outdoors) and move it indoors. Heat pumps use electricity to run a compressor and fan motors, but for every 1 unit of energy used to operate the system over the heating season, more than 3 units of heat energy are delivered into the home.

In communities like Prince of Wales, where hydropower is available, heat pumps create an opportunity to “shop local” and convert clean, locally-produced renewable energy into affordable heat.

Other benefits include:

• Potential for cost-savings and more predictable pricing for home heating bills.
• Eliminates the need for on-site fuel storage and delivery, and associated risks of spills, theft, etc.
• More affordable maintenance.
• Provides air conditioning in the summer.

The event is being sponsored by Southeast Conference, USDA Rural Development, the Alaska Center for Appropriate Technology, Sustainable Southeast Partnership, Tongass Federal Credit Union, Alaska Power & Telephone Company, Schmolck Mechanical Contractors, Key Bank, and others.

Businesses wishing to participate are encouraged to contact Jason Custer at 907-225-1950 or jason.c@aptalaska.com

Reporting and Editing by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

Alaska Power & Telephone
www.aptalaska.com

Southeast Conference
www.seconference.org

 

Representations of fact and opinions in comments posted are solely those of the individual posters and do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.

SitNews ©2017
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.