Case Study: Dot Lake, Alaska

Dot Lake is located on the Alaska Highway, 50 miles northwest of Tok, and 155 road miles southeast of Fairbanks. It lies south of the Tanana River. The current population of Dot Lake is 33 people. The heating system is a Garn wood-fired boiler with a heat exchanger, heating a secondary loop that in turn heats eight homes. The secondary loop is attached to an oil-fired unit that directly heats the homes. If the heat exchanger from the wood fired unit does not warm up the water in the secondary loop enough, the oil-fired boiler fires on to compensate for the needed heat.

Source: Alaska Energy Authority

System Specs

  • Heat exchanger off of a 4,400-gallon hot water tank
  • Preheats oil-fired boiler return water
  • Supplies 2,200 foot buried district heating system

System Cost

Installation Cost: $68,021
Annual Operation and Maintenance (At 100% oil replacement )

  • Labor: $3,028
  • Wood fuel:$3,766
  • Maintenance: $1,849

Community Contact Person

Dot Lake Village Council
Phone 907-882-2695

Additional Information

http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CIS.cfm
http://www.uaf.edu/aetdl/woodfiredboilers.pdf

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