[Greenbuilding] log homes

[Bruce Donelson]

Of course - when Googling - all log homes - and all homes, now that the NAHB
is "green"! - are energy efficient.

Does anyone know about real-world energy-efficiency and log homes?

Thanks,
Mark Marcoplos
Marcoplos Construction
919-968-0056
http://www.MarcoplosConstruction.com

They are horrible. We've got a ton of them here in Oregon. You have to be
married to your woodstove, and they are still cold all winter. Some smallish
homes have two large woodstoves.

The R-value of wood is aobut 1 or 1.5 per inch. The contact surface between
two logs is about 3 or 4 inches, so at most you can achieve an R-6 at the
joint. The fatter portions of the log might leak heat slightly slower, but
most of the paths through the log are short. Even the fattest parts of a 10"
log would only give an R-value of 10 or so.

Log home manufacturers get around this by stating that their building has an
"equivalent R-value" of whatever, based on the idea that the mass of the
logs offsets the low actual R-value by absorbing heat during the warm part
of the day. That could work out OK on a few days per year, but when its cold
its cold.

Log homes were popular when the goal was to get those pesky trees out of the
way so you could grow more feed for your critters. They figured that as a
rule of thumb it would take as many trees to heat your house each year as it
took to build it.

Bruce Donelson
A Better Builder