NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Displacing Wood Use with Electric Thermal Storage Heating to Improve Ambient Air Quality

导航新北极（NNA）是美国国家科学基金会的十大构想之一。NNA项目解决快速变化的北极地区的融合科学挑战。北极研究需要为国家、更大地区和全球的经济、安全和复原力提供信息。NNA支持从地方到国际规模的新研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当情况下整合知识的共同生产。该奖项通过解决以下NNA重点领域的社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现这一目标：北极居民、数据和观测、教育和弹性基础设施。在北极地区，空间供暖通常是必要的，但燃烧燃料来加热生活空间具有巨大的财务和环境成本。例如，在阿拉斯加州的费尔班克斯北极星区（FNSB），大多数家庭使用取暖燃料油作为空间供暖的主要来源，木柴作为次要供暖来源。燃烧木材的取暖设备是该行政区2.5微米及以下细颗粒物（PM2.5）的最大来源，但与取暖燃料油相比，木材是一种相对低成本的燃料。FNSB被列为PM2.5未达标区域，这与心肺健康的负面影响有关。电蓄热加热器（ETSH）可以通过取代目前用于住宅供暖的柴火来帮助解决PM2.5问题。本研究旨在确定住宅ETSH的使用是否可以减轻阿拉斯加内陆地区的环境PM2.5空气污染和燃料贫困。这项研究对任何有兴趣减少住宅空间取暖燃烧木材造成的PM2.5空气污染的社区都具有公共卫生和政策意义。它也对北极社区感兴趣的木材燃烧和PM2.5的碳成分之间的关系有影响。这项研究可能会导致更广泛地采用ETSH用于空间供暖，这可以改善空气质量，减少燃料贫乏，并减少住宅空间供暖的碳足迹。该项目通过四个部分整合了自然环境、建筑环境和社会系统的维度：1)ETSH现场实验；2)空气质量分析与建模；3)经济分析；4)空气质量教育。本项目的研究目标是：1)测量处理控制小区安装住宅ETSH前后的环境PM2.5空气污染；2)对控制和治理小区的PM2.5污染源进行排放清查；3)在控制风速、风向、气温和相对湿度的情况下，对收集到的PM2.5空气污染数据进行建模，以确定处理区与对照区之间的环境PM2.5浓度是否存在可测量的差异；4)测量PM2.5的组分，估算其源贡献；5)预测燃料价格的变化和排放废气数量和浓度的增加对FNSB环境PM2.5空气污染的影响；6)估算FNSB居民为ETSH充电的电力支付意愿（WTP）；估算FNSB住宅供暖燃料需求的短期自有价格、交叉价格和支出弹性；8)估算不同电费水平下碳排放计划对居民供暖支出的影响；9)与FNSB教师合作，为PM2.5空气污染科学单元开发和试点课程材料。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. The Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Data and Observation, Education, and Resilient Infrastructure.In Arctic regions, space heating is often a necessity, but burning fuel to heat living spaces has substantial financial and environmental costs. In the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB), Alaska, for example, most households use heating fuel oil as their primary source of space heating and firewood as a secondary heating source. Wood-burning heating devices are the largest source of fine particulate matter with a size of 2.5 microns or less, (PM2.5), in the borough, but wood is a relatively low-cost fuel compared to heating fuel oil. The FNSB is classified as a nonattainment area for PM2.5, which is associated with negative impacts on cardiopulmonary health. Electric thermal storage heaters (ETSH) could help solve the PM2.5 problem by replacing the firewood currently used for residential space heating. This research aims to determine whether the use of residential ETSH can mitigate ambient PM2.5 air pollution and fuel poverty in Interior Alaska. This research has public health and policy implications for any community interested in reducing PM2.5 air pollution resulting from wood burning for residential space heating. It also has implications for Arctic communities interested in the relationship between wood burning and the carbon components of PM2.5. This research may lead to a broader adoption of ETSH for space heating, which could improve air quality, reduce fuel poverty, and reduce the carbon footprint of residential space heating. The project incorporates dimensions of the natural environment, built environment, and social systems through four components: 1) an ETSH field experiment; 2) air quality analysis and modeling; 3) economic analysis; and 4) air quality education. The research objectives of the project will: 1) measure the ambient PM2.5 air pollution in a treatment and control neighborhood before and after the installation of residential ETSH in the treatment neighborhood; 2) conduct emission inventories of the sources of PM2.5 in the control and treatment neighborhoods; 3) model the collected PM2.5 air pollution data, controlling for wind speed and direction, air temperature, and relative humidity, to determine if there is a measurable difference in ambient PM2.5 concentrations between the treatment and control neighborhoods; 4) measure the constituents and estimate the source contributions of PM2.5; 5) forecast how changes in fuel prices and increases in the number and concentration of ETSH may affect ambient PM2.5 air pollution in the FNSB; 6) estimate FNSB residents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for electricity to charge ETSH; 7) estimate short-run own-price, cross-price, and expenditure elasticities of demand for residential heating fuels in the FNSB; 8) estimate the impact of ETSH on residential heating expenditures under different electricity rates; and 9) collaborate with FNSB teachers to develop and pilot curriculum materials for a science unit on PM2.5 air pollution.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.