[Cob] Straw bales for roof insulation

[jane at kirstinelund.dk]

You can indeed use straw bales to insulate your roof. A lot of people do
it here in Denmark; for instance some of the people in my community. It
does make the roof rather high and heavy, but it's cheap and effective.

You just put the straw bales under the water proof top roof, with air
space in between for ventilation. Usually you also coat the bales with
clay to make them fireproof.
>
>
> Sure heat loss through walls is a huge deal - if you have no insulation at
> all in the walls. But you have to compare total heat loss for the whole
> house, conventional insulation versus straw in the walls with conventional
> everywhere else. Why? Because you can't make a roof of strawbales. Straw
> can only raise the R-value in the walls, not the whole house. And adding
> R-value in walls  above that of standard insulation reaches a point of
> diminishing returns on investment. Gee, why not make a house of popsicle
> sticks? Why limit it to straw?
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>