On Mar 5, 3:38*pm, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
On Mar 5, 2:17*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:



On 3/5/2010 3:38 AM Dean Hoffman spake thus:

JIMMIE wrote:

My friend and I were discussing building adobe home in areas where
adobe would not normally be used, Like here in North Carolina. We are
aware of its shortcomings for doing this but was trying to come up
with practical ways of overcoming them. Basically it gets down to are
their ways to make adobe hold up in wet climates short of mixing
concrete and calling it adobe.

I wonder what people use on the straw bale houses. * Maybe the same
stuff would help on the adobe buildings.

Straw bale construction, while also very interesting, is a different
concept from adobe, at least thermally speaking. Straw acts as an
insulator. Adobe, on the other hand, is not a very good insulator,
contrary to popular conception; it's actually better at storing heat
than keeping it in or out. So an adobe building acts like a giant
thermal flywheel, storing heat at night and keeping the inside warmer,
while keeping the inside cooler during the day during hot weather, or
keeping the inside warmer than it normally would be during winter. In
that sense, it's the ideal building material for any climate, hot or cold.

Yeah. *My concrete block veneered with granite house stores heat
and cold like a bitch. *I have to keep the humidity low in the winter
to prevent water from condensing on the inside of the perimeter
walls.
In the summer, I have to run the central air day and night. *If I try
to let
the house warm up a little during the day while I'm at work, it takes
hours to get it cool again.

Cindy Hamilton


Cindy:

What sort of interior wall construction or insulation do you have on
the inside of your concrete block exterior walls ???

Also, have you looked into using a programmable thermostat which
you could use to activate the air conditioning in the early afternoon
before you come home -- then you would only have that problem
of taking hours to cool off when you come home early for whatever
reason...

~~ Evan