Cob: COBB AND INSULATION

[DoNegard at aol.com]

Pat
<<Some how I don't think that a wall with 12 inches of fiberglass between 
 some sheetrock would act equivialently as a 6 ft, 4 inch wall. My 
 feeling is that if I lit a wood burning stove in each of these 
 structures (the fiberglass, and the thick earth walls) the earth 
 stucture would still take longer to heat up than the fiberglass walls, 
 but would stay warm longer once it finally heated up. Thus mass is mass 
 and has certain properties, and resistance to heat exchange is another 
 property. Both exist no matter to what degree but they are not the 
 same.>>
I, too, am sure that the fiberglass and the 76 inches of earth will not act 
equivalently in tests of heat loss, heat gain and heat storage.  And the 
differences is what I am trying to find out.  One of my questions could be 
stated this way:

If you had two houses side by side, one with 12 inches of fiberglass 
insulation above the ceiling, and the other with 76 inches of earh above the 
ceiling, and all other elements of design and materials were identical, AND 
one burned the same quantity of fuel in both houses, what are the differences 
a person would notice by living there and sharing daily time in both houses, 
for one full year?

It seems to me, that unless the factors that affect human comfort and well 
being were put into some kind of formula, we could guess and guess forever on 
the benefits of this and that building system.  Does anyone have such a 
system, or would they like to join in an attempt to design such a system?

Don in Hot Springs, SD