[Cob] suspicious embodied energy figures for lime

[phil]

I know this thread is a week old but I have some info that might be handy.



I am an ecological building design major and for my Ecological Architecture class last spring I did a comparative study of different standard and non-standard building practices based on an 8' x 8' wall section to measure cost and embodied energy. I would be happy to share the final paper with anyone that would like to read the whole thing but here are some results that you may find interesting:

___________

	To produce a useful comparison, consider a series of walls, eight foot by eight foot, produced using different building methods and materials. In this comparison, data will be used to calculate the average amount of embodied energy, in British Thermal Units (BTU), required to construct the sample wall. For the sake of these examples, the walls do not contain wiring, plumbing, doors or windows. The foundation has been excluded, along with fasteners, paint and trim.



The following information is for an 8’X8” Wall and includes the Embodied Energy (BTU/8’x8’ wall) as well as the overall Cost of 8’X8’ wall (given that all materials are purchased) and does not include labor.

2X6 w/ vinyl siding: 2,922,160 BTU/wall: $192.42 per wall

2X6 w/ brick: 5,535,600 BTU/wall: $571.30 per wall

Cinder block and stucco: 5,193,594 BTU/wall: $113.76 per wall

6” SIPS w/brick: 1,132,278,458 BTU/wall: $844.00 per wall

Timber frame Strawbale: 1,701,344 BTU/wall: $93.57 per wall

2X4 framed strawbale: 2,032,704 BTU/wall: $71.00 per wall

Larson Truss w/ slipstraw: 2,641,868 BTU/wall: $92.11 per wall

Cob w/ slipstraw outsulation: 1,575,336 BTU/wall: $52.48 per wall

___________

As you can see, even if the embodied energy figures for lime are correct, they have little if any impact. I would dispute lime being higher in EE as compared to portland based on the research I did for this paper. My primary sources for EE figures were the books of Clarke Snell and Dan Chiras, but I verified as well as I could with other sources.



Hope some finds this even a little bit interesting.

Phil Hawn - Student

www.berea.edu/sens



***************

Ron says:

Got this from a friend after a discussion about lime plaster vs portland based plaster. >>snip<<  Portland Cement 94 lb sack 381,624 BTU, Lime, hydrated 100 lb sack 440,619 BTU

_______________________________________________
Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com
The most personalized portal on the Web!