musings on insulation

Having decided to have a wooden ceiling - partly because I like the aesthetic of wood, partly because I am hoping I will be able to find suitable wood cheaply/free second hand and partly because I know Dad can 'do stuff' with wood and I will be able to as well - the next question becomes what to insulate the ceiling with?  I'm going to use wool I think.  It fits with the natural materials I am using in the rest of the house, doesn't burn easily and is a great insulator.

I am hoping that the council permission stuff won't require insulation in the walls as cob relies on thermal mass rather than insulation to regulate the temperature.  If they do require it I will turn to cob/strawbale hybrid, at least on the southern wall.  Using flakes from a strawbale sandwiched between layers of cob.  I need to do more research on this though.

Speaking of the southern wall, I am hoping to make use of the southern wall (which won't get sun) and build a cold store and dry store on that side of the house.  The plan at the moment is to build a drystore off the kitchen and as you go through the dry store have the coolstore on the other side.  I'll slope the floor down through the drystore to the coolstore so that the cold air pools in that area of the house and hopefully that will mean I don't need a fridge.

Which brings me to noting down the fact that I want to have the least amount of electricity I can.  I am hoping that I will only need one or two power points installed.  I would like to try and get by with alternative lighting (which I think I have mentioned before) and the bare minimum of things that need electricity - the freezer (especially if I start to grow animals for food), somewhere to charge up the computer and mobile and maybe a food processor.  Cooking and hot water will be taken care of by the stove (also some of the heating) and I will  build a fireplace in the living area if more heating is needed.  I am also contemplating a solar hot water system for summer so that I don't have to have the stove lit all the time.

Random thoughts

- when building in windows and doors, gaps need to be left above them to allow for the cob to settle.  In "The Hand Scultped House"  they suggest waiting for the cob around the window to settle, then instal the lintle allowing room for more settling between the lintel and the glass or door .  One of the bookmarks I have (I'll sort them out one day, I swear!) has another method however - putting straw above the window/door and cover it with cob then continue building - this allows for movement and settling, insulates and would allow for quicker building.

- quick building is potentially an issue.  Depending on the weather during the summer I am building I may need to be able to have the house weather proof quicker or drying/curing conditions may not be optimal

-  because of weather concerns I will probably raise the roof first, supported on posts outside the foundations (the roof needs to have large eaves to protect the cob from weather anyway) and build the walls underneath it.  This should make it easier to build if weather is less than ideal, provide a space to store materials and tools and protect the foundations, walls and floors as we build.  The pay off for this is that finishing the walls up under the roof will be more tricky and potentially so will building the ceiling, unless the ceiling is built at the same time as the roofl

The stove

I want a wood fired stove with a wetback for the hot water.  There are a few reasons for this.  One is that I want the least amount of electricity use possible so having my stove used for cooking, heating and hot water helps achieve this.  The blocks of land I am looking at will most likely need some trees felled to make them suitable to build on and this will provide wood for a while, and I plan on planting trees to cover the rest of my wood use so hopefully there will be a minimum amount of time when I am buying wood and the rest of the time I will be self sufficient.  The third reason is purely selfish - I find a wood stove comforting and aesthetically pleasing.

In an ideal world the stove I get will be this one






http://www.pivotstove.com.au/products/p-266-esse-esse-ironheart-wood-stove

A long journey in front of me...

I'm starting this blog in an attempt to keep all my links and research and brainstorming in one place.  One of my major aims for the next 10 years is to build my own house, and hopefully do it mortgage free.  Being a single parent relying on the government for my income this is not going to be easy!
Thankfully my plan doesn't involve a huge mansion, but rather a small cob cottage.  The main building will have enough room for me to live there by myself when the children are grown and gone, with rooms that are part of the building but not integral to it for the bedrooms.  The idea being that when they have left home those rooms can be closed off  unless I have visitors.


I have chosen cob for a few reasons - environmentally it is great, using a mix of clay, straw and sand.  It has great thermal mass so I will be able to use passive solar heating and it should stay a nice even temperature all year round.  It is durable - there are many houses around the world that are hundreds of years old made of cob.  It is flexible, the only limitations on design being your imagination.  It is cheap - most of the things needed can be found on the building site.  It is empowering.  I can build myself a house that I own outright, from the foundations to the roof.  I will be able to do all the upkeep on it myself too.