19 Oct
2007
19 Oct
'07
1:50 p.m.
In article <4718AFE6.29791.1E075F49 at cclist.sydex.com>,
"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes:
On 19 Oct 2007 at 14:09, Richard wrote:
I had considered rammed earth using the technique called "passive
annual heat storage". Basically you have a huge dry earth mass into
which you pump heat all summer long and draw heat out of it all
winter long. For a machine room, you'd probably want to do the
reverse: draw heat away from the machine room into the earth mass all
summer long and draw (some) heat out during the winter. To create
a dry earth mass large enough to provide sufficient cooling for a
machine room I'd need to do some calculations, but off the top of my
head I was figuring that the earth mass would need to be pretty
large. I was figuring I'd need to buy an empty lot instead of use
the back of my garage :-).
Any thoughts on this? Note that I'm not
suggesting going without any
active cooling, just wondering if adobe construction would lower the
bills and make the necessary cooling equipment smaller.
There are lots of very good alternative construction techniques.
Walls made of straw bales covered with chicken wire and stucco were
very popular a few years ago. Rammed earth is another possibility.
Why not go subterranean? Relatively constant temperature year round. Some local codes allow varied construction; others are
downright
hostile. Earthquake codes may get in the way of adobe in some areas.
Plumbing and wiring with adobe can be a real pain, unless you don't
mind running everything on the interior surface.
Good point, I hadn't considered earthquake codes w.r.t. adobe. As
for the wiring, I'd either live with the industrial look of interior
conduit or just put up drywall on the interior to hide it.
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