 Energy Survey - A Rousing Success
by Deb Moore
In early October, the Northern Center sent out an energy survey to all of our members in interior and arctic Alaska. This survey was part of a larger campaign to foster better widespread understanding, support and usage of energy conservation practices, efficiency measures and sustainable alternative energy sources in the Fairbanks community. With the survey, we hoped to get a better understanding of how our members currently use energy as well as how we can best assist them in their energy conservation efforts. We are thrilled to announce that, by the end of October, over 49% had responded!
We'd like to thank all of you who participated in this survey. The data provided will be extremely useful in shaping our energy efforts and monitoring our effectiveness in the years to come. Thank you also for the comments and suggestions provided on ways to improve the survey and activities to take on. While many of the suggestions will be incorporated into our longer-term efforts, we would like to immediately address two comments regarding the survey.
First, some of our members were wondering why we chose to do a paper survey rather than an email survey. Certainly, an email survey would have consumed fewer resources and saved money. However, quite a few of our members do not use email and would not have received the survey. In addition, the length and complexity of the questions made a phone survey complicated. Therefore, in this case we judged that a paper survey was our best way to contact our entire northern Alaska membership.
Secondly, a few respondents felt our members were probably the best educated Fairbanksans when it came to energy issues and that this survey and the resulting follow-up efforts were simply "preaching to the choir." However, while our survey was directed toward our membership (since this was the easiest group of people for us to contact), our energy-use efforts will be community wide. Plus, assuming our members are the best educated on energy topics (not necessarily a safe assumption), the survey results show two important facts: 1) there is interest among our members in learning more and making more energy-use changes and 2) since many of our members are unfamiliar with energy saving options such as Energy Star appliances and Power Saver Cords, chances are the general populus knows even less!
Survey results and analysis
Transportation: 69% either never used another form of transportation besides the family car or did so only 1-2 days/month. However, most people (74%) carpooled or combined a series of errands at least once a week in order to decrease their overall driving.
The Northern Center recognizes that with the lack of a decent public transit system, most people (including us) have little choice but to drive to work every day. However, it is possible to offset some of that fuel use by carpooling with your significant other or a neighbor/coworker. You can also organize your errands into the most efficient series possible (e.g. do all of your across-town errands at the same time rather than driving across town for a different errand each day). The results of the survey indicate that most respondents already do some measure of conserving their driving whether for environmental, economic or time management reasons.
Plugging in/Timers & Power Saver Cords: 79% of the respondents always plugged in their car at -20 F; however decreasing numbers always plugged in at higher temperatures: 47% at 0 F and only 10% at +20 F, respectively. 54% had timers while only 10% had power saver cords. The rest had neither - although several respondents explained they personally didn't need them because of garages at home and cycled power at work.
For information on why it's good to plug in up to +20 F, and how timers and power saver cords can save energy, please see our Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Community Perspective piece, 'It's time, temperature to plug in'.
Vehicles: The most common automobiles were sedan/station wagons and small pickup trucks with small cars, SUV and standard pickup trucks also being slightly less common. Average gas mileage was around 20-24 mpg with 7 respondents driving vehicles that got greater than 40 mpg. The most common vehicles outside of automobiles were snowmachines and small motorboats.
Considering our weather and unpaved roads, the choices of vehicles is not surprising. Nor, with the reluctance of the auto industry to make improvements, is the gas mileage. While the Northern Center encourages everyone to make their next vehicle the most efficient one that's practical for their circumstances, the majority of our efforts will focus on ways to improve gas mileage through inflated tires, frequent tune ups, carpooling, and other similar activities.
Home electricity: 90% of respondents purchased all of their electricity from their local utility company - presumably GVEA. When asked whether "green energy" was available in their area, 64% did not know or had never heard of green energy.
Unfortunately, alternative energies such as wind and solar are of limited use in much of interior Alaska. Although some homes will be able to take advantage of one or both of these options, most will remain dependent on GVEA. Currently, GVEA does not have a green energy option; however, according to their website, they've "assembled a team of employees to follow developments in alternative energy markets and evaluate their potential for GVEA." The Northern Center will continue to encourage GVEA to develop a green energy program; however, the majority of our efforts will focus on ways to use less energy through conservation and efficient appliances.
Home energy use: 61% of the respondents either frequently or always turned down their thermostat or allowed their house to cool while away for the day while a whopping 96% shut off idle lights, computers, etc. most or all of the time. In addition, 66% were using compact flourescent bulbs in at least three of their light fixtures. A fairly large percentage of respondents (39%) either did not know about Energy Star appliances or had none in their home. However, 25% actually had all or at least three such appliances.
For more information about Energy Star appliances and compact fluorescent bulbs, click here.
Energy audit: Roughly half of the respondents have had either formal or informal energy audits done (or had their house built to be energy efficient) while 82% planned to use energy efficient materials and/or appliances in future remodeling.
Current level of energy use/ NAEC activities: 53% of the respondents felt that they were already efficient but intended to try to do more to conserve energy. The rest were fairly evenly split between willing to make some easy, convenient and inexpensive improvements and wanting to improve but needing more information. Only 6% felt that they had cut back enough and didn't intend to do more.
The most popular ways in which respondents thought the Northern Center could help them improve their efficiency included printing guest opinions in the News-Miner, printing articles in the Northern Line and participating in existing community events. Other possible activities included making fact sheets available on our website, creating a resource center for information on local green businesses and improving the Northern Center's own efficiency. Additional activites suggested by respondents included running public service announcements on KUAC and KSUA radio, holding tire inflating events 1-2 times each year, providing "energy tips" in the newspaper and/or encouraging the paper to spotlight energy efficient homes & businesses, and working on a recycling program for the community.
Where do we go from here
Over time, the Northern Center hopes to build our energy-use program into an integral part of our overall operations where we can undertake all of the activities listed above. For the short-term, we be will expanding the energy page to include numerous helpful fact sheets and links, will continue to include energy-related articles in our newsletter and guest opinions in the News-Miner and will be available to answer (or find answers for) energy-related questions as they come up. In addition, we hope to organize a collaborative energy-use improvement fair sometime this winter and will continue to participate in existing community events such as the Tanana State Fair, Golden Days Parade and possibly, the Ice Carving Festival.
Thanks again for your help!
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