[Cob] insulation

[phil]

Why not use slip straw on the inside of the north wall as insulation? Better yet, don't use cob where it can't get sun light to warm it up. It will suck the heat out of your home. If you can make your home shallow north to south so that your south facing windows can throw sunlight on your north wall making it into a trombe wall.

Just a thought.

Phil Hawn, Student of Sustainability and Environmental Studies at Berea College
http://www.berea.edu/sens/

 --- On Wed 01/18, Roselle Milvich < rosellewind at yahoo.com > wrote:
From: Roselle Milvich [mailto: rosellewind at yahoo.com]
To: coblist at deatech.com
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 16:59:42 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Cob] insulation

Hi Amanda,I must not have been very descriptive because I don'tknow what you meant.  Maybe we are talking aboutdifferent things.   I was referring to thestrawbale/cob walls that someone reported as quitestrong with 6" cob on the inside and strawbalesplastered together (I'm assuming around every balelike the mortar between bricks).  I think the cobmortar would make it inneficient, as it is a thermalmass type of material rather than an insulator.  Itwould stop convection, but I think conduction wouldhave a greater factor in cooling.I appreciate your feedback,Roselle---------snip---------Well, maybe, but remember thata) cob has straw in it.b) both are plastered--possibly with aclay/sand/chopped straw mixture.(might be a good idea, if you were using a gable roof,to make the two load-bearing sides out of the same material).....................Roselle wrote (snipped virtually into nothingness)I don't feel so good about the cob around the bales.Wouldn't conduction still wick out the 
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