Aspen Avenue in the valley seems to be the hot spot for the Juneau Carbon Offset Fund’s carbon reduction projects. (Could it by the fancy yard signs?) Our eighth and ninth air source heat pump installations were completed on Aspen Ave just today, with the homes of Ernestine Jack and Jessie Risenberger now enjoying clean, dry, inexpensive, oil-free heat! Carbon offsets purchased from the Juneau Carbon Offset Fund web store provided the bulk of the funding for these two carbon-kicking projects!

These two homes have been oil-hungry for a long time and we’ll be monitoring them closely over the next year to see just how much oil, if any, is needed to fill in the gaps during cold spells. We estimate that each of these two 15K Daiken Aurora heat pumps will eliminate over 550 annual gallons of heating oil each.

Ernestine was quickly excited by the ability of her family’s new heat pump to keep the primary living areas warm and allow the bedrooms to be a bit cooler. With only one thermostat in her home, she has had little control over temperatures in the smaller rooms, temperatures driven by the hot-water baseboards. Kids were opening windows to spill heat, while living areas remained just right. Now, the living room, kitchen and family room can sit at 70 degrees while the bedrooms stay comfortable and cool. Happy kids = happy parents!

Jesse will be doing some experimenting to find the right formula for her home. There are no zones with forced air oil heat. Essentially, the entire house is a zone, the forced air mixing and moving and equalizing the home’s temperature. Jesse will be closing off and possibly covering some of the vents in those parts of the house that stay warm and dry with the heat pump. When the winter chill hits the valley, she may opt for inexpensive oil-filled electric space heaters for a few weeks or she may choose to fire up the boiler a bit. We’ll be monitoring this balance as well.

We are happy to know that in addition to nearly 1100 gallons of oil NOT be burned, that these two families should realize a 50% or more reduction in their annual heating bills! Thanks are owed to all of the customers of the Juneau Carbon Offset Fund and to all the businesses who both support the Fund and work with it.