[Greenbuilding] Straw Bale Flash Demo

[Chris Green]

The folks at the Pangea Partnership have added pages promoting strawbale 
construction to their web site. It seems to be fairly recent.
http://www.pangeapartnership.org/?page=strawbale

Clicking on the gold coloured Trivial Pursuit wedges opens up expanded 
notes about the topics covered. A quote from one of the expansions:
> ...studies by the United States Department Of Energy have shown that 
> the cost of owning a strawbale home is over 50% less than the cost of 
> owning a conventional wood-frame home over the same period, due 
> largely to the reduced energy consumption.

Of special note, the website includes a Flash Video demonstration of the 
steps in constructing a basic load-bearing sb house.
http://www.pangeapartnership.org/?page=sb_demo

As the demo progresses through the stages of building, it adds a another 
numbered item to the list on the left side. Once the flash has completed 
its' cycle, you can click on the list, say on 1: Foundation and Curb, 
and watch a somewhat more detailed presentation of each step.

Note that the demo leaves out some details, such as placing rebar in the 
footings and foundation, but it is a good basic learning tool. If you're 
on dial-up it will take longer to download but I think it's worth doing so.

They also provide a bibliography. Although the latest entry dates are 
for 2003, it lists some important publications which might not have come 
to the attention of new list members.
http://www.pangeapartnership.org/?page=bibliography


Cheers,

Chris Green.