Volume 1, number 3, March 1999 Making Friends with Mr. Sun Several years ago my wife Margaret and I made the decision to buy a house in Ester, the town we grew to love. If anyone has ever looked for a house in Ester you probably already know it is practically impossible to do. The demand is simply greater than the supply. Once people move here they tend to stay a long time. This will eventually, and some will say it already has, force people to build new homes on previously undeveloped land. The desire of people to build their lives here will eventually force Ester to grow. Perhaps some day the Golden Eagle and the rest of downtown Ester will be razed, leveled and replaced with a fast food restaurant or chain supermarket. Ester may eventually resemble the urban sprawl that already plagues our world everywhere. What can we do? Perhaps we can implement a community-wide policy that would dictate to anyone living in Ester for thirty years or more to pack up their belongings and leave. This would put a lot of houses on the market, allow others to live here for a change and prevent the unsightly sprawl we all seem to despise so much. We could do this or we could suggest to those who want to live here to do what Margaret and I eventually did. Go live someplace nearby and just hang out in Ester as much as possible. The only problem with finding a house near Ester is that they don’t really exist either, especially one we could afford. Our limited war chest eventually led us to where we live today: at the top of the Old Nenana Highway, a mile past the nearest power pole, no plumbing or phone. It does have a propane refrigerator, stove, and lights. Moving into a cabin a UAF student would reject was, to say the least, frightening. I never imagined I would be spending the rest of my life without plumbing, even though I haven’t had any for eight out of the twelve years since I moved to the Tanana Valley. Having no phone or electricity that first winter was a total bummer. We might as well have been living under a stump or something. We bought the house four years ago and still the plumbing does not exist. Maybe some day after the mortgage is paid we’ll join the modern world. The phone was really pretty simple. We tried a cellular phone but because of the cost we eventually settled on a radiophone. They’re expensive to buy but fairly cheap to run. It was the electrical solution we chose that eventually introduced me to Mr. Sun. We didn’t want a generator running all the time so we decided to try a combination of alternative and traditional power sources. Eventually we settled on solar panels, a wind generator and a gas-powered generator. If the sun isn’t shinning and the wind isn’t blowing out comes the generator. For the last three winters the generator has used on average about fifteen gallons of gas to produce all the electricity we need during the dead of winter. I’ve been keeping track and our solar season ends about mid-October and begins again in mid-March. The season would be longer if our house was located somewhere with a better southern exposure. During the five months that the solar panels collect snow we depend on the wind generator, which really helps out a lot. Every time the temperature takes a big dive or significantly warms up we get a nice blow that will last for several days. It’s very satisfying to come home and see the wind generator spinning. I don’t remember a buzzing power transformer ever having the same effect. In addition to alternative power, I also installed a solar furnace in order to supplement the wood stove, our primary source of heat. The solar furnace is basically a large, clear plastic-covered box attached to the side of the house that simply heats up air. A small solar panel and fan forces the warm air into the house through a cat door. The idea is that when the sun is shining the air is warmed and the fan moves the warm air into the house. It is still fairly new (two years) but I think I’m getting away with not burning any wood to heat the house for two to three weeks in both the fall and spring, effectively saving a month and half of splitting and hauling wood each year. Hey, I’ll do anything to make my life easier. The only problem with alternative power is storing it. Battery technology is improving but no type can store all the power the various sources can provide. The inadequacy of batteries is what led to my friendship with Mr. Sun. Whenever the batteries are fully charged and the sun is still shining or the wind is still blowing I always feel like I’m just wasting extra juice. It’s during these times I get out the vacuum and do a little house cleaning. If it were not for Mr. Sun it wouldn’t be possible to clean my carpets without first starting that darn generator. Thanks again, Mr. Sun. Next time could you do my windows? | ||
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