And, to add one thought to Ernie's great cornucopia of ideas, thermal
mass does not have to be in the walls. Thermal mass helps to temper
rapid temperature shifts, and in the mountains that means from cold
to frigidly cold and then colder. At 8400' you won't see much need
to a/c except for maybe a week or so and in the daytime, and I expect
you could tough it out. You can develop the mass you need in the
floor. With a radiant/hydronic system and a very thick concrete
floor properly insulated underneath and with a moisture barrier.
And, use thick dense plaster on the interior surface of the walls.
Also, put in a masonry heater -- basically a fireplace built with
about 3-5 tons of stone/brick that uses a baffle system for the flue
to capture all of the heat. A masonry heater could also be
fabricated from pressed adobe block/brick you can make yourself (for
part of it at least). Water is a great heat reservoir, a barrel of
water would be simple way to add thermal mass. Most areas in Colorado
now permit FPSF slabs, eliminating a foundation, making it simple
to "thermal mass" the slab, but with proper edge insulation. Look
up "frost protected shallow foundations". If you are in an area
requiring a permit, then an engineer will have to stamp the design.
A 1200 sf concrete floor 4" thick/4" granular fill can store almost
20,000 btu's per degree of rise [Farenheit]. A masonry heater can add
another 2000+. Stoke up the masonry heater and you'll stay cozy all
nite. You could even pipe the radiant floor through the masonry
heater. I suspect you have plenty of free fuel to heat with
surrounding you.
If you want thermal mass to help temper the temperature shifts, then
there's a lot of options. One cavaet, if this is a weekend place you
are building, then bringing it up to a comfortable temp in the winter
could take some time. Remember that the thermal mass will absorb a
LOT of heat as it warms up, so if the house is cold you might need to
make the weekends long ones -- in fact I'd suggest you forget using
thermal mass if it is a weekend place. Good luck - Duane.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "Ernie Phelps" <eepjr24@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Mikey Sklar <sklarm-yahoo@>
> wrote:
> >
> > The papercrete would give you good insulation around r=50 or so
at
> > 12" thick. However, it is not thermal mass.
>
> It is not HIGH thermal mass. Almost anything has some thermal mass,
> unless it has no heat storage capability at all. The papercrete
will
> be pretty low, wood will be a bit better but not alot.
>
> > If you two are willing to work your butts off for a few years
and
> > spend the few thousand dollars on mixer, compressors, sprayers,
> > and pumps you can probably pull off a inexpensive well insulated
> > home.
>
> With the R36 (minimum) from the papercrete and ~R16 (minimum) from
> the cordwood I think you should have plenty of insulation. If you
> want thermal mass, then perhaps you should look to earth ships or
> other tamped earth methods. It does of course depend on your PC
mix,
> if you go with high clay content or high pozzolan content I suspect
> you could get significant thermal mass, but at the cost of
> insulative value.
>
> I don't disagree with Mikey's time or energy estimate, but I think
> you could do it for less money if you are thrifty and/or
innovative.
> Sprayers, pumps, and compressors do not sound necessary for this
> application if you went with either block or slip form. You could
> probably slip form using the cordwood as one side of the form,
even,
> reducing material for forms.
>
> I would not try to spray with bad elbows. My VERY limited
experience
> sayd that you would have to be very creative with pulleys or other
> assistance to pull that off. Off grid will add some challenges, I
> would suggest a tow mixer if you can get one. If not then a gas
> mortar mixer might be acceptable, although it will slow you down
> some.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> - Ernie
>
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