[Strawbale] European strawbale research and gratitude to Jenik

[Michael lough]

Please note the following recent posting to the European based strawbale 
construction list (below dashed line). I have posted this posting on this 
list as it might be of interest to some that have not subscribed to the 
European list and are therefore unaware of the research being conducted in 
straw bale construction (SBC)

For some reason prior research by Jenik has been disputed in North America 
as valid or even as being necessary (and  even censored by one commercial 
straw bale organisation in North America), but perhaps Jeniks posting from 
the European list will seek to bring assurance to those that do not believe 
that straw bale construction is as it is perfect in all regions of North 
America and that SBC might be able to be made more efficient  safer to live 
in or both as a result of Jeniks work

We should be grateful  to Jenik for his good work and at least acknowledge 
(as North America has not done before) his obvious devotion to his work and 
wish him well.. It remains to be seen if we will…



Michael K Lough

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From: Jan Hollan <jhollan at amper.ped.muni.cz>
Reply To: European strawbale building discussions 
<strawbale at amper.ped.muni.cz>
To: European strawbale building discussions <strawbale at amper.ped.muni.cz>
Subject: [Strawbale] Volunteers for 3-layer passive insulation?
Sent: July 19, 2006 10:19:20 PM

If anybody would be interested to help us much sooner, Tuesday
to Thursday
(next week, July 25-27) in Hostetin, we would welcome it.

We will insulate one wall of the building (author: Georg W
Reinberg) being
currently constructed there. At least 3-ply straw sandwich (40
cm thick)
will be used.  Well separable layers taken from jumbo bales will
be
employed, about 7 cm thick (taken as pairs in this case). At
wall, they
will be separated by paper, at least each 14 cm of thickness.
The purpose
of dividing straw by paper is to suppress heat transport by
convection to
almost negligible values (convection takes place just inside the
individual chambers of 1/3 thickness, at 1/3 temperature drop
and less
then 1/3 flow speed, so the total convection heat transport is
about 1/10
of the case with just a single undivided straw layer). Such
suppression is
a prerequisite to achieve passive-house U values of about 0.1
W/m2K.

The roof of the backyard building is insulated by straw already,
divided
just to halves by paper (this is sufficient for horizontal
insulations).

I think this is the first attempt to reach ``passive values''
reliably
with straw instead of commercial insulation materials. Don't you
want to
play a role in it?

Hostetin is in eastern Czechia, close to Slovak border. It's a
small
village with 280 inhabitants. A plethora of interesting
environmental
projects took place there already, becoming well known in our
country. An
interesting site to visit in any case.

We can offer you food and simple (basically outdoor, under
shelter)
nightings. Stars are nicely visible in Hostetin, thanks to brand
new
outdoor lighting retrofit using fully shielded lights (donated
by
Phillips). We have a small pub there and a rather cold (but nice
in hot
weather) pond on a stream just above the village.

The building site is quite busy (Skanska is the contractor), but
I on
``our'' wall in the orchard we will be able to work without much
intervention by another professions.

If you would be inclined to come Monday evening and help us,
please write
me off-list. I will send you further info.

jenik