Light earth wall experiment progress
Oct0
As part of the conciliation of things into satisfying projects the greenhouse project has morphed into a lightearth wall proving ground.
Ever since I read Gernot Minkes book and then encouraged Bis to make his walls I have been convinced that lightearth (or straw/clay or light cob) is a superior infill system to strawbale for buildings in the New Zealand temperate climate. It offers sufficient insulation, thermal mass and a lower footprint.
The posts have been in the ground for over three years but the design has stuck – an off angle roof tuned for solar performance while hunkering down to the south (where the cold comes from). The south wall will be 220mm thick light earth with firewood stacked under the oversize eave – hopefully offering enough mass and insulation to let us grow some citrus inside the building.
The idea is to test the performance of the lightearth wall in a very demanding environment - high humidity and spraying water every day should provide that. I will put some temperature data loggers in the wall and on either side (I’d really like some humidity data loggers too but haven’t found any cheap enough).
More later as it evolves.
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- The roof framing in place. The south side of the roof is recycled galv corrugate - the thick soft stuff (which looks like it came on the first ship)
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- The rear wall has top and bottom ... er .. kinda bond beams. The footing will be a hybrid 'welsh' stone footing and metal flashings. I am fighting my first inclination to use concrete with a desire to experiment and build a structure which could be dismatled as easily as it is built.
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