Cob: Oklahoma thoughts and concerns

[David Kammer]

Lots of stuff in there, but I can comment on one
point.  The cooling technology you are describing I've
commonly heard called "earth cooling tubes". 
Normally, they are air-circulated, but a water
circulated device is definitely worth an
investigation.

A quick search turned up this us dept of energy page
on the subject:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/consumerinfo/refbriefs/aa1.html

Being a DOE page, the review is of course rather
fuddy, but it does contain a good Bibliography, which
may prove useful.

Here is is for choose who are interested:
Bibliography
The following publications and articles provide
additional information about earth cooling tubes. This
bibliography was updated in May 2001.

"Cooling with Earth Tubes," E. Francis, Solar
Age,
(9:1) pp. 30-33, January 1984.

"Design of Air Tempering Facilities,"C.
Elifrits and
A. Gillies, Earth Shelter Living, (No. 30) pp. 26-27,
November/December 1983.

"Earth Pipes," C. Elifrits and A. Gillies,
Earth
Shelter Living, (No. 29) pp. 6-7, September/October
1983.

Low Energy Cooling, D. Abrams, Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company, New York, NY, 1986. 320 pp., Out of print.

"A Novel Approach to Cooling and Heating of
Buildings-Envelope Conditioning," U. Kachru,
Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Energy
Efficient Building Conference and Exposition, 1994,
pp. B61-75. Available from the Energy and
Environmental Building Association (EEBA), 10740
Lyndale Avenue South, Suite 10W, Bloomington, MN
55420-5615; Phone: (952) 881-1098; Fax: (952)
881-3048; World Wide Web: www.eeba.org .

Passive Annual Heat Storage, Improving the Design of
Earth Shelters, J. Hait, Rocky Mountain Research
Center, 1983. Out of print. ISBN 0-915207-00-1.

Passive Cooling, J. Cook (ed.), Solar Heat
Technologies: Fundamentals and Applications Series,
Vol. 8, MIT Press, 1989. Out of print. ISBN:
0-262-03147-7.

"The Truth About Cool Tubes," M. Smolen,
Rodale's New
Shelter, (5:6) pp. 57-59, July/August 1984.

"Tubes Cool Off Texas," Earth Shelter Living,
(No. 31)
pp. 12-13, January/February 1984.

Another Source of Information:
The co-author of several of the Earth Shelter Living
articles will respond to inquiries regarding earth
cooling tubes:
Dr. Dale Elifrits
University of Missouri-Rolla
School of Mines and Metallurgy
Department of Geological Engineering
129 McNutt Hall, Rolla, MO 65401
Phone: (573) 341-4847; Fax: (573) 341-6935
Email: cdfritz at umr.edu 


--- bobodod at cox.net wrote:
> Hello all. I haven't been keeping up with the
list
> real well, so forgive me
> if any of these ideas have already been raised.
> 
>     A friend brought up the concern that the
extreme
> temperature and weather
> variations - strong winds and intense storms - we
> experience in Oklahoma
> would wreak havoc on a Cob building. He wondered
if
> a change of 40 degrees
> Fahrenheit wouldn't crack the walls. Or just the
> very hot Summers and cold
> Winters might do the same. Any opinions on this?
By
> the way, the climate
> here is slightly above average humidity, I think.
> 
>     Another friend brought up another concern
> involving the heat here. In
> the Summers, the temperature often doesn't get
below
> the high eighties,
> unlike the desert where the temp will drop
several
> dozen degrees at night.
> He thought that with all of the thermal mass of a
> Cob building, the walls
> would not be able to shed the heat of the day at
> night. By the end of Spring
> and beginning of Summer, this could mean living
in a
> sauna.
> 
>     One idea yet another friend ; ) came up with
in
> retaliation to all that
> heat was to do some sort of radiant cooling in
the
> walls. He said he got the
> idea from "This Old House" or something
similar. He
> was flipping the
> channels on his TV and heard "Oklahoma"
mentioned.
> He stopped to check it
> out and it turned out that some home builder here
in
> this landlocked State
> had buried a coil of pipe (not sure what kind),
deep
> in the ground - at
> least six feet - several feet away from the
house.
> He then ran pipe from
> that coil to pipe which he imbedded in the walls
of
> the house he was
> building. My friend wasn't sure if the guy'd
filled
> the pipe with water or
> what, but the idea was to let the Earth cool the
> liquid in the pipes
> overnight, then pump that liquid into the wall
pipe
> in the morning,
> completing the cycle the next morning.
>     Has anyone heard of this? Any thoughts as to
> doing the pumping action
> with a modified bicycle if someone were wanting
to
> be free of the daily
> electricity needs of the pump? Or would the
physics
> of that be impossible
> (meaning a couple hundred gallons or whatever
being
> pushed around by two
> scrawny human legs)? Would Cob dry and settle
> correctly with pipe buried in
> it? I've heard that the Earth from about 6 feet
and
> on down, stays at a
> constant temp of 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Can
anyone
> confirm this? And if
> that's the case, I imagine that it'd be
> advantageous, if not bothersome, to
> pump the liquid every single day as it'd help to
> regulate the indoor
> temperature year round. And round about, tackling
> the first concern I
> mentioned of the walls being able to take
> temperature extremes.
> 
> I'm going to give my fingers a rest now.
> 
> Sean Fenton
> Oklahoma City, OK
> 
> 
> 
> 


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