Cob: Thermal mass works, PAHS works, Insulation works

Thu Jan 30 23:22:24 CST 2003

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<P>cat here, I don't know if this is pertinent, but somewhere I read that cob homes in Ireland very early on had a constant fire in them even in the summer.  This was for cooking and also had some spiritual significance.  If the occupants left the home to another, coals from the fire were taken to the new abode as though the fire was a personality of the house.  If memory serves, one house had a constant fire going for over 300 years.  I have seen this in these mountains also where a family burns a twig fire in a cook stove through the heat of summer to dry the air and make the house less humid and it surprised me but it was more comfortable!</P></DIV>
<P><EM>for the good of all </EM>Cat<BR><BR></P></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>>From: "Amanda Peck" <AP615 at HOTMAIL.COM>
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<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: "Amanda Peck" <AP615 at HOTMAIL.COM>
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<DIV></DIV>>To: coblist at deatech.com 
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<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Cob: Thermal mass works, PAHS works, Insulation works 
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<DIV></DIV>>Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 21:48:17 -0600 
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<DIV></DIV>>But not necessarily under equal circumstances. Seems like I've 
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<DIV></DIV>>heard the Passive Annual Heat Storage people saying it takes a year 
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<DIV></DIV>>or so to get the building working right. 
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<DIV></DIV>>Three points. 
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<DIV></DIV>>a) My friends with the (uninsulated) high thermal mass house would 
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<DIV></DIV>>probably laugh at you both. It takes a lot more than an hour with a 
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<DIV></DIV>>little resistance heater to heat up the walls in the basement. You 
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<DIV></DIV>>have to get them heated a couple of inches in. You are not, after an 
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<DIV></DIV>>hour or so, trying to heat up the soil outside And if in addition 
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<DIV></DIV>>you have plenty of solar gain--through the windows, through the 
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<DIV></DIV>>greenhouse via a blower, you can survive most any (Tennessee) winter 
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<DIV></DIV>>with only a few fires in the fireplace. They keep telling 
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<DIV></DIV>>us--closing in on ad nauseum--how warm their house was when they got 
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<DIV></DIV>>up--and how they need to have a fire in the wood-stove in the 
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<DIV></DIV>>community center--even if the rest of us are pretty comfortable. I 
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<DIV></DIV>>house-sat at their house, and three or four days of mostly pretty 
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<DIV></DIV>>cloudy--or the insulating curtains drawn--and their house is still 
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<DIV></DIV>>only around 63 degrees. 
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<DIV></DIV>>b) I've already posted this once here today. IANTO SAYS (therefore 
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<DIV></DIV>>it's true!!!!) that cob, and by extension anything that depends on 
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<DIV></DIV>>thermal mass, is probably not the best material for a building that 
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<DIV></DIV>>isn't occupied and heated one way or another, most of the time--like 
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<DIV></DIV>>Drew's basement. Insulation and quick heating qualities do count in 
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<DIV></DIV>>this case. 
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<DIV></DIV>>c) the thermal mass gurus (maybe including Evans) assure us that if 
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<DIV></DIV>>you had for some reason (smoke from steaks, or whatever) to replace 
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<DIV></DIV>>all the air currently in your home, the insulated stick-built 
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<DIV></DIV>>building would take a lot longer to get back to a comfortable 
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<DIV></DIV>>temperature than the high thermal mass building. 
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<DIV></DIV>>I've snipped, paraphrased, and added a bit to this: 
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<DIV></DIV>>Drew says (correctly): 
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<DIV></DIV>> > If I go into my 40 degree uninsulated basement and put on a 
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<DIV></DIV>>space heater while I'm working on something, the temperature warms 
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<DIV></DIV>>up right nearby the heater only. 
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<DIV></DIV>>Darel goes on (correctly) to say that the passive annual heat 
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<DIV></DIV>>storage works. (Even in something as teensy as a tiny storage 
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<DIV></DIV>>shed.) 
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