Cob: avoid code with this floorplan & heating question

[Amanda Peck]

I sent predictable comments back to the guy for the first of the plans.

You're right.  Cob and straw-bale share some of the same design 
features--thick walls, possible roof supports outside of those walls, need 
to keep water off and out of the walls.  Cob is probably better for a lot of 
curves (although there are some round s-b buildings, and some with kind of 
unintentional curves in them).  Looking at other peoples' plans can teach 
you a whole lot.

This house is intended for use in Hawaii.  Where you can eat outside most of 
the time. Where you don't freeze dashing from one module to another.  And 
they used to sell cars without heaters or defrosters there--I had one.

Foundations and footings would be my question for a modular cob house in a 
temperate climate.  Whether the very long runs for heat through holes in the 
foundations would be feasible, whether you'd lose all your warmth on the 
way.  And whether the first plan on the modular house URL would have enough 
solar heating to be worth trying it. (the second one does, maybe too much 
for Hawaii, even if it is on the Big Island, maybe a few thousand feet up.  
You really do want to keep your walls warm in cooler weather with cob and 
things like slip-form concrete.

Evans suggests a hypothetical (I hope it was) in which someone on a flood 
plain at the bottom of a north-facing hill wanted a cob building that would 
be occupied only sporadically throughout the year. This would be a terrible 
situation in which to expect cob to perform anything but badly.  Modular has 
some of the same problems.


Jill's looking at this plan, wondering if it would solve some of her 
problems.

http://www.balewatch.com/480.compound.html

While the designer had strawbale in mind, the concept is exactly the same 
with cob.
Note the separation of the rooms serves two purposes: 1. to give you 
learning experience and 2. to avoid having to deal with code issues AT ALL, 
legally

My only question is: can you put the tubes under the ground to connect the 
heat source? What do you think would be the heating solution?


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