[Strawbale] thermal storage insulation

[Jan Hollan]

Dear balers,

I'm afraid we haven't announced a link to the images from perhaps a novel
employment of strawbales: for a generous thermal insulation of a 10 m3
(old, obtained for transportation and manipulation costs) steel tank.
There is just Czech description at the moment, the images are at
 http://www.veronica.cz/centrum/slama/f_tank/indextank.html

In short, there is a EPS founding (20 cm depth around, 10 cm height)
with PE foils on it, the tank itself has at first 5 cm mineral wool around
(Armin Themessl from AEE Villach recommended so for working temperatures
around 100 degrees) which also helps to cover the uneven places of the
surface. Then there are two layers of bales, with straw oriented
vertically. The layers are separated by a paper, to prevent large
convection cells, also each row is separated from the bottom one. They are
pressed to the tank by a standard plastic (PP?) tape.

The whole construction period (the whole time since summer in fact) has
been very wet, so the work was not so pleasant as it could be.

The straw layers are 40 cm each, so the total insulation thickness is 85
cm, almost as much as the tank radius (90 cm). I wanted to put some PE
foils between the layers at the top, these are missing however. But the
roof is rather tight and sealed to the plaster. The plaster has been made
in a bad weather with temperatures down to freezing point, it's cement
on a wire mesh.

The connection to the house is not built yet, the bales will proceed till
the wall, a bit over the ground. The roof is finished meanwhile, the
remaining images should perhaps appear soon.

The enthalpy storage is not yet working, it should be connected to the
36 m2 TiNOX collector on the opposite site of the building, an apple-juice
manufacture. (The collector assembly is visible at
 http://www.veronica.cz/centrum/solar/tinox/default.htm )

jenik