Cob: mass house/oven

[Darel Henman]

Vicki Wicker wrote:
> 
> Darel,
> It helps to berm for sure. By five feet you would get I would guess in the
> 60s. Our well water is very cold, I'd say 50s. We looked into some concepts
> of using the well water to cool and return it to the well to recool, but
> we're not getting a lot of water from our well, 3 gal/minute. Didn't think
> we had the volume of water to be successful with that strategy.

You might think about ... what's that called "earth tubes" or
something.  In essence tubes through which air flows underground and
cools off before bringing into the house.  It may be something to look
into.


> Our house will be about 1 third bermed exterior walls, living roof on 2
> thirds.
The living roof should help a lot.  I read data to this effect, but
can't recall the figures.
The living roof  will also cool the roof with transpiration... the
plants sweating basically.


> We figure doing totally without air conditioning is not feasible
> unless we are willing to do some sweating.
I use a fan.  It's only really bad for 40+- days or so here.  On really
hot days a shower and to sit in fron of the fan is like heaven. 

My wife has something like a bandana, but waterproof, in which one puts
ice in it and then she ties it to her forehead.  It's made for this
application.  Might help one get to sleep for a few hours on a really
hot night.  

> What we are trying to do is
> minimize our need for running the a.c. as much as possible. At this point I
> am convinced that maximizing insulation is the best way to do that. I could
> be wrong.
> I just didn't want to go totally underground aesthetically. Plus, with 3
> children there is a real concern about being able to escape if needs be.

All underground structure by law I believe have to have two exits.

> There is someone in Northern Arkansas who has a very upscale house in a
> cave. Saw it on Extreme Homes on HGTV. I don't think they had to do any
> cooling.
> vicki in arkie
>