Cob: Insulation

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Sun, 18 Jul 1999 Keftydia at aol.com wrote:

[snip]
> I have a problem to the contrary.  Here in hot, humid South Carolina (USA), I 
> question whether cob is a good choice for building.  We routinely reach 
> temperatures in the upper 90's a good portion of the year.  I know cob's 
> property of balancing high-low temperatures, but I suspect overall the 
> ambient temperature would become a bit too high for comfort.  I wouldn't want 
> to construct a cob home only to find I had created a large-scale solar oven.
[snip]

You should probably first check what your 24 hour temperature averages are
for the worst time of year before getting to concerned, since people often
think that this value is much worse than it actually is.  Assuming that it
is as bad as you think, I would look into how much of a cooling effect you
can get by using an earth coupled floor (such as cob) to help hold the
temperature down.  It might help also to sink the floor below grade to get
a better cooling effect (with proper drainage).  You may also wish to
incorporate exterior insulation on the cob to make the most of the cooling
you get from the floor, and the strategic use of shade trees can have an
enormous effect on heat gain as well.


Shannon C. Dealy      |                    DeaTech Research Inc.
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