<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<META content='"MSHTML 4.72.3110.7"' name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman CE"><FONT color=#000000>Hi Andre
and Coralie,</FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#000000><FONT
face="Times New Roman CE"><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman CE"><FONT
color=#000000></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#000000><FONT
face="Times New Roman CE"><FONT size=3>Could you explain how did you get the
curve of thermal resistance R vs thickness of straw layer x? Can you send me the
data obtained in your experiment?</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman CE" size=3>You suggest that R
value is not proportional to x. Possible reasons : 1)not uniform properties of
straw, ( for example higher moisture content in the exterior part of bale), 2)
error in experimental procedure. That why I ask you for additional
data.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman CE" size=3>I guess that the
answer at the question At what point (R value) do we reach 'enough'
insulation? depends on prices of buildig materials and labour and on the
cost of energy for heating (cooling) you would find acceptable</FONT>.
</DIV>
<DIV>Amities Henryk Czachor</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><B>-----Original Message-----</B><BR><B>From:
</B>Coralie & Andre de Bouter <<A
href="mailto:m.ep@laposte...">m.ep@laposte...</A>><BR><B>To: </B>ESBN
<<A
href="mailto:strawbale@amper....muni.cz">strawbale@amper....muni.cz</A>><BR><B>Date:
</B>Monday, June 24, 2002 10:27 AM<BR><B>Subject: </B>[Strawbale] At what point
(R value) do we reach 'enough' insulation?<BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>a question :
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When we draw the relation between insulation in cm and the thermal
resistance obtained we obtain a curve.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For example:</DIV>
<DIV>0 cm insulation > 0 thermal resistance</DIV>
<DIV>5 cm insulation > x thermal resistance </DIV>
<DIV>10cm insulation > 3x thermal resistance </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>curve starts to slow down...</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>50 cm insulation > 30x thermal resistance <BR>100 cm insulation >
40x thermal resistance </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So at some point it is as good as useless to increase the insulation
because it hardly adds up to increased performance.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>***The the million dollar question is: At what point (R value) do we
reach 'enough' insulation?*** </DIV>
<DIV>I guess this is relative to the climate, is there any objective way of
calculating this? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I ask this because other ecological/natural building systems do not
offer R6 (R=m².C/W), but I would like to form an idea on at what point
we can say it is well enough insulated. rather that bluntly stating that SB
has the best R value. (a bit like saying a Ferrari can do 300km an hour,
when 100 km an hour is enough)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I know that some other building systems fonction in a different way
(storing the heat or cold in thick high mass walls for instance) but I'm
only looking to the insulation approach here.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Greetings,</DIV>
<DIV>André</DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>