Cob: Re: INSULATION FACTS

[DoNegard at aol.com]

Hello
 I have waited and waited for these opinions and these limited personal 
experiences to drive someone else up the wall.
 
 I want to see some factual information appear shortly and regularly on this 
list:
 
 1. A list of the insulation quality of many different materials, including 
fiberglass and shredded newspapers.
 2. A clear simple explanation of how R-Value is determined (in the 
laboratory and in the field, if possible).
 3. Does R-value as standardly tested, really the same as comfort level.  I 
have heard the numbers for earth for a while, and I am not yet convinced that 
all materials that give the same R-value, will also give the same comfort.
 
 One thing I know for sure about interior house walls: if they are very cold 
to touch in the winter, the room is going to feel "too cool".  I have seven 
inches of fiberglass in my walls, and a foot in the ceilings.  I now pay $80 
per month for natural gas to heat this super-insulated 1060 square foot house 
in the coldest (Mpls, MN) months.  Twenty years ago, when this house was 380 
square feet with a layer of brittle tarpaper for "insulation", and 
fifty-year-old windows, it cost $80 a month to heat it.  These are some of 
the raw numbers; I still need to know gas price earlier, and the degree-days 
over the years, and the seasonal heat bills.  Maybe when I get settled in Hot 
Springs, SD, I will figure it all out, as I am interested in natural, 
comfortable, form-follows-function, cheap, interesting housing.
 Don (still in Mpls, MN)
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