[Cob] Straw bales vs ?

[David Knowlton]

my friend the engineer would say that the 'application' is
what determines the practicality of different building methods.

for example: stone and brick are not commonly used in florida -
we don't have those things locally. we do have wood and concrete.

we also have very high ground water levels - making basements
quite unpractical here - not impossible - just impractical.

david


>From: "Shannon C. Dealy" <dealy at deatech.com>
>Reply-To: dealy at deatech.com
>To: GlobalCirclenet <webmaster at globalcircle.net>
>CC: coblist at deatech.com
>Subject: Re: [Cob] Straw bales vs ?
>Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 20:48:59 -0700 (PDT)
>
>On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, GlobalCirclenet wrote:
>
>[snip]
> > bales.  The strawbale fad is wildly impractical for a house because 80% 
>of
> > heat loss is through the ceiling, and that's not counting doors and 
>windows
>[snip]
>
>The high relative heat loss through the ceiling is only true on more
>poorly insulated houses, as the R-value increases uniformly throughout the
>walls and ceiling, the heat loss per square foot of the ceiling
>relative to the walls decreases until it becomes virtually uniform.  I
>don't remember the numbers, but I think it was around R-40 or R-50.  The
>reason for the difference is that poorer insulation levels (particularly
>in the ceiling) generate stronger convection currents in the house, and
>the stronger the convection current, the faster the heat is transferred.
>
>There is a little more to it, but what it boils down to is that highly
>insulated homes (regardless of insulation type) lose far less heat, and
>lose it pretty much uniformly across the walls and ceilings, where poorly
>insulated buildings lose alot more heat, and lose most of it through the
>ceiling.
>
>
>Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
>dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
>                       |    Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers
>Phone: (800) 467-5820 | Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications
>    or: (541) 929-4089 |                  www.deatech.com
>
>
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