Cob: to insulate or not

[Drew Neve]

Hi, this is Drew in Wisconsin.  I am thinking along those lines too.  I
have a southern exposure on the hillside.  As Rob Roy points out in his
"Earth-Sheltered Home".  The earth is a terrible insulator so you do
want to insulate that rear wall.  Using the rear rooms for storage does
provide further insulation for the living areas and keep them more
comfortable.  The advantage to being against the earth is that you are
insulating against 40 degrees instead of -20 degrees (around here), but
the earth will absorb the heat if you don't insulate.

Yun Que wrote:

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> Cat here,  WV. it has gone to -10 here talked with a women from  DNR
> and she suggested that I back the  long side of my cob into a hill
> facing south using the cob front facade as a solar collection wall
> behind glass.  Then add wing walls on each side to meet the hill and a
> long over hang to capture the earth temp, and offer some rough
> storage.  Have not experimented with this yet maybe in the spring.
> Anyone done anything like this?
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> for the good of all
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> >From: "Kristen Wilson"
> >Reply-To: "Kristen Wilson"
> >To: greyraven_r at yahoo.com, writejill at hotmail.com, coblist at deatech.com
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> >Subject: Cob: to insulate or not
> >Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:03:48 -0500
> >
> >I wonder in what range of climates is it generally necessary to
> >insulate cob? I had the impression from my readings and from
> >following the list that in a broad swath of the country, a passive
> >solar cob house with a stove would be adequate. Perhaps I am
> >extrapolating from my own experience - I grew up in a stick-frame
> >passive solar house in western Virginia, in that recently mentioned
> >climate range of not always but occasionally going down to the 10s.
> >We used a wood stove at night and on cloudy days in the winter, but
> >there were lots of sunny days that kept us comfy without the stove.
> >(I have memories of Christmas morning in our sunny living room,
> >feeling overheated from the sun and excitement, despite sparkling
> >frost outside!) Of course the stick frame house was all insulation
> >and no thermal mass, so maybe a cob house in the same climate would
> >lose too much heat. Interesting to note: my parents, while planning
> >the house, considered the suggestion of filling the half-buried
> >basement with rocks to incorporate thermal mass. However, I think
> >that idea was dashed when our landlord in town raised the rent and
> >we went ahead and moved into the completed basement while my parents
> >kept building the rest of the house in their spare time.
> >
> >Kristen
> >Chapel Hill, NC
> >
> >
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