Rethink Your Life! Finance, health, lifestyle, environment, philosophy |
The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
|
|
Cob: Re: Aluminun foilMatthew HALL(SED) M.Hall at shu.ac.ukMon Feb 25 03:10:40 CST 2002
K8 >> Maybe someone can clue me in as to the feasibility of putting a layer of >> cob on the strawbale, then a sheet of aluminum foil reflecting toward the >> interior, finishing with the rest of my cob wall. My thinking is that a >> none continuous layer of reflective material would reflect heat back into >> the house and still not create a vapor barrier. >> >> Let me know what you think. I may be wrong on this but i believe aluminium foil reflects only radiant heat and not conducted heat. If this is so then the layer of foil would serve no purpose buried inside a wall. Am i incorrect in this assumption anyone? Also, the idea of any non-porous barrier inside an earth wall/straw bale wall at the interface between the two walls will probably result in interstitial condensation forming inside the outer layers of the cob wall. Increased moisture content will alow its compressive strength to wall and the cob will be likely to slump under its self weight. I agree with Ocean, no need to worry about heat loss as the insulation will encapsulate this and allow it to be stored in the mass walls. Contrary to what some might think, these types of insulated thermal mass buildings have been built with a large degree of success in parts of the world with very winter temperatures. Have a look in Reynold.s earthship vol 1 book 1991. for more infor in insulated mass walls. Hope this helps Matthew ____________________________________________________________________ Matthew Hall - PhD Research Student Centre for the Built Environment Unit 9 Science Park Sheffield Hallam University Pond Street Sheffield S1 1WB England Tel: +44 (0) 114 225 3200 Fax: +44 (0) 114 225 3206 E-mail: M.Hall at shu.ac.uk
|