Re:[Ekodum] dotaz From: Karel Srdecny

[Max Vittrup Jensen <max AT permalot.org>]

Pardon, ale...

Insulation is the opposite of Mass. Insulation stops the movement of 
cold/heat due to air or gas pockets.
This is what happen inside each single straw as well as in the larger 
area of a straw bale.
As for the advertized parameters of 0,08 W/m.K. Sounds fine, but I find 
it hard to believe: A Stramit panel weighs 30 kg/ m2 x 10 cm. It is 
about 3 times as much as a straw bale. In other words the straw is 
highly compressed, limiting air in and around the straws.
Stramit is a strange hybrid between insulation and mass; neither one, 
nor the other.

The same advertisement tells me Stramit can not burn and that it can 
resist water. Also here reality is different.
When a maringotka burned down on our property, the radiant heat caused a 
stack of 10 new stramit panels to catch fire, as they were 2 meter from 
the flames. The fire fighters turned it out, but thereby damaged the 
panels with water. Now, 3 years later, I can show you panels cracking 
and dissolving due to rain/snow combined with bad detail construction.
I do like the Stramit panels, but I would never use them for 
insulation...or against fire! Probably best is to use them for interior 
walls in office buildings...

And I also like Jan Hollan, but I have to point out that the approach he 
designed for Hostetin is to my belief yet another example of poor use of 
straw in Czech construction which need not be repeated. I keep wondering 
why it is that before Czech gains experience with normal straw bale 
building, the various architects...(or astronomers)...has to try to 
improve it?
It is clear to me that out of the 15 buildings made with straw in C.R. 
the main reason to avoid 'real' straw bale building has been because of 
fear of the building law. And we have proven that this is not necessary: 
A round stamp from a fire expert makes a 'real' project accepted by the 
building offices.

zdravim,
Max Vittrup Jensen