[Strawbale] insulation and thermal recovery

[Rob Tom]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:28:42 -0500, Sherwood Botsford  
<sbotsford at sjsa.ab.ca> wrote:

> Shody Ryon wrote:
>> Is it worth the extra material and construction costs for the increase  
>> in R value, and could that air be captured and used somehow (assisting  
>> a thermal recovery ventilation system in winter)?

In a world where there is no such thing as flies, earwigs, mice, spiders  
etc (and their excrement) then it might be a reasonable proposition, but  
otherwise, I'd think twice and then once again, about having ventilation  
air come into contact with the contents of such a space.

There is a 20-something-year-old Candian product that works along similar  
lines but obviously it hasn't made many inroads into the potential market.  
You tell me why there's a lack of interest. [Shrug]

          http://www.solarunlimited.net/solarwall.html

A reflective air space is quite simple to achieve in conventional  
construction (ie foil-faced rigid foam insulation with 1x furring over,  
then cladding,  but on a SB wall ?
Perhaps if one were utilising a rainscreen cladding system, then yes.

Otherwise, I'd say that the increased R-value (~3 ?) is somewhat redundant.

On the interior ?

Again, if there were no such thing as mice and little insect critters,  
then creating a reflective void behind the interior finishes might be  
worth considering if the space does double duty as an accessible chase for  
services (ie wiring, cabling, plumbing) but otherwise, it's just eating up  
space in what would otherwise be useable interior volume.

If the buiding is so large that the loss in usable interior volume won't  
be missed, then it could be argued that the building is bigger than it  
needs to be and could be re-designed to be smaller, with attendant savings  
bith initially (fewer materials) and over the long term (operating energy).

=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply