Cob: [Fwd: INSULATION FACTS]

[Sojourner]

*sigh*  Meant for the list again.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: INSULATION FACTS
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 17:09:03 EDT
From: DoNegard at aol.com
To: sojournr at missouri.org

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)