Alaska Beat

Dillingham house is certified world's most airtight

A house designed at the UAF Bristol Bay campus and built by a Dillingham couple has been certified as being the most airtight ever tested in the world. KDLG reports that the 600-square-foot house built by Tom and Kristin Marsik (Tom teaches sustainable energy at the college) has tightly sealed, superinsulated walls more than 2 feet thick and benefits from passive solar heating and "waste" electrical heat recapture.

"We are certainly excited about this," said Marsik. "The purpose of this world record attempt was to help bring attention to energy efficiency, and hopefully motivate others to be energy efficient. With this official world record recognition, I think it really helps emphasize our message of what's possible."

The Marsik home tested at 0.05 ACH (air changes per hour) at 50 pascals of pressure. That's an extraordinarily low number; some experts point to buildings in the 1-2 ACH range as being exceptionally efficient.

Tom and Kristin began building their super-efficient home in 2010, modeled after a "Passive Office" designed at the UAF Bristol Bay campus.

Read more from KDLG - and listen to the radio version of the story - at AlaskaPublic.org: Dillingham couple builds world's most airtight home

Anchorage

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