Cob: COBB AND INSULATION

[Michael Saunby]

On 20 July 1999 13:57, DoNegard at aol.com [SMTP:DoNegard at aol.com] wrote:
>
> 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?
>

You might also want to consider a house with 11" of fibreglass, and another 
of 13", and similary for the earth.  In fact I'd guess that you could even 
consider 6", 12", and 18" and get a pretty good idea of how many centuries 
you'd need to heat your house for to make the extra 6" worthwhile.  At some 
point the need to allow fresh, and presumably cold, air into the house in 
order to breathe means there is an upper limit to what it's worth spending 
to keep the air inside your house warm.  And if you've got no thermal mass 
in your house then air is the only thing you've got to keep warm.

> 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?
>

The designers of outdoor clothing must have some idea.  You see a careful 
balance here between warmth, ventilation, protections from wind and rain. 
 For a house you could add sound protection, light (and glare), fire 
protection.

Michael Saunby