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Cob: Re: INSULATION FACTSDoNegard at aol.com DoNegard at aol.comSat Jul 17 16:10:58 CDT 1999
Hello I have waited and waited for these opinions and these limited personal experiences to drive someone else up the wall. I want to see some factual information appear shortly and regularly on this list: 1. A list of the insulation quality of many different materials, including fiberglass and shredded newspapers. 2. A clear simple explanation of how R-Value is determined (in the laboratory and in the field, if possible). 3. Does R-value as standardly tested, really the same as comfort level. I have heard the numbers for earth for a while, and I am not yet convinced that all materials that give the same R-value, will also give the same comfort. One thing I know for sure about interior house walls: if they are very cold to touch in the winter, the room is going to feel "too cool". I have seven inches of fiberglass in my walls, and a foot in the ceilings. I now pay $80 per month for natural gas to heat this super-insulated 1060 square foot house in the coldest (Mpls, MN) months. Twenty years ago, when this house was 380 square feet with a layer of brittle tarpaper for "insulation", and fifty-year-old windows, it cost $80 a month to heat it. These are some of the raw numbers; I still need to know gas price earlier, and the degree-days over the years, and the seasonal heat bills. Maybe when I get settled in Hot Springs, SD, I will figure it all out, as I am interested in natural, comfortable, form-follows-function, cheap, interesting housing. Don (still in Mpls, MN) >>
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