Jim Juczak from http://www.woodhenge.org has a nice example of a
cordwood/papercrete home, The logs give thermal mass, and the papercrete
provides insulation.
Steve Spence
Director, Green-Trust
http://www.green-trust.org
http://www.green-trust.org/bookshop/
----- Original Message -----
From: "mdumiller" <mdmiller1@gmail.com>
To: <papercreters@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:34 PM
Subject: [papercreters] Re: Papercrete/Cordwood Combo?
> 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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>
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