Cob: tra cotta pipes,insul

[Amanda Peck]

Somebody asked me this.  I've thought a lot, read a lot, have VERY LITTLE 
real world experience, by the way.  Not to mention I'm opinionated, and 
figure saying something straight out is the best way to ask a question.  
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

a) you might not need to shelter your greenhouse/trombe wall in the front of 
your cob building. Just do whatever you would do if it were a plain 
greenhouse. You WOULD need to make sure it didn't overheat everything.  My 
friends who have this arrangement--and theirs IS a greenhouse, it's starting 
summer plants right now--can take large portions of the sides out for the 
summer. They blow hot air into their house in the winter, keep a couple of 
55 gallon drums filled with water out there for a moderating influence as 
well.

b) stem wall, all the same precautions you would use for the rest of your 
cob.  Rely on tuning the overhang that you put in to get winter sun, not 
summer, if you put cob between your windows.  Which might not be 
structurally sound.  Shade and ventilation in the summer are going to be 
important.  If there's no particular problem with the cob there, an arbor 
with morning glories or other annual (or deciduous) vines is pretty nice.  A 
retractible awning would be nice, until there was a nasty thunderstorm the 
day you went shopping in Memphis.  You would need to think ventilation in 
the summer, in addition to shade.



Brent Flaco Wilson:
"If you were going to add a passive solar room on the front of a cob house 
with a trombe wall.  How would you shelter the cob from the weather on the 
front?"


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