[Strawbale] moisture sensors in bale walls

[Brian Waite]

Derek and all,
When I first researched building myself a strawbalehouse I became 
concerned about moisture levels because I am in the wettest part of the 
UK - it's called the Lake District for good reason.
The average humidity here is 80% with the rain arriving horizontally. 
This caused me some concern so my solution is to cover all the bales 
with tiles and use the chimney effect to draw air over the exterior of 
the (lime rendered) bales (and under the tiles).
We are at the end of the wettest Winter for a very long time and my 
moisture levels are an average 6%-8% over 24 different points throughout 
the building - so I am satisfied that the passive draft system is 
working. I have twelve positions that measure at 3 inches from the 
inside and 3 inches from the outside using a hand held moisture meter - 
I have three years of consistent data.
Brian
www.strawbalehouse.co.uk


On 26/03/2014 00:36, Derek Stearns Roff wrote:
> Below are links to a few studies that might help.  These were all done in Canada.  The last one has lots of charts and graphs.  There were several reports in The Last Straw Journal over the years.  The book Serious Strawbale has a discussion of this question.
>
>
> http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/publications/en/rh-pr/tech/00-103-E.htm
> http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/bude/heho/heho_004.cfm
> www.baubiologie.at/download/CMHC.doc
>
> Derek
>
> On Mar 25, 2014, at 6:02 PM, Dave Howorth <dave at howorth.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> I remember reading a paper where somebody had installed sensors both at
>> the inside and outside of a bale wall, and both at the top and the
>> bottom of the wall. Then they monitored it for a year or more. They
>> found that two sensors had higher readings than the other two. I think
>> it was the upper outside and lower inside that had higher readings in
>> summer and winter, but perhaps my memory is faulty and they were the two
>> positions with lower humidity readings. Does anybody happen to to have
>> seen that paper and remember the details?
>>
>> Thanks, Dave
>>
>>
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>>
> Derek Roff
> derek at unm.edu
>
>
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