[Cob] thermal mass, insulation and "Ianto says"

[Amanda Peck]

Hot flashes may be a blessing? (well, not if they come and go!)

OK, the thermal mass people believe that you aren't going to be comfortable 
if the WALLS and FLOOR aren't warm in winter (or cool in summer).  
Comfortable being defined in this case as what suits you in the clothes you 
feel are appropriate.  Their strategy involves keeping the walls and floor 
warm in winter all the way through, for if the walls get cold it may take a 
couple of days of tending for the heat to soak into massive walls and floor 
.  If you're going to let the house get really cold, especially on a regular 
basis, then you'd be better off WITHOUT much in the way of thermal mass and 
WITH a lot of insulation.  That situation would mean that you could heat the 
house up rapidly and not have to put up with cold walls.

My bigger dog heads under the comforter at about 55 degrees, the smaller one 
sleeps under something if I do.  Between the two of them (and a third dog 
who barks to come in when it's cold out), and a fairly serious comforter, 
we're fine sleeping when it's in the high thirties INSIDE.  But we're 
heating up the small insulated space under the covers, not thermal mass.  
And I pour on the clothes when I get up in the morning, turn the heater on, 
start water for coffee, wait for the sun to shine into the trailer.  A house 
will be nice, although I'm considering a sleeping porch.

Didn't Roy's first house have plenty of solar gain?


...............
Quinn says:

Another consideration that no one has mentioned is -how warm is warm?

[For instance, two dogs wouldn't keep me warm in upstate NY winters even if 
I were sandwiched between them!  ; )  ]

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