Some of you may be wondering why Rosalba and I are wanting to build our new home with straw bales. Following are my reasons:
Straw is a renewable resource that is mostly burned after harvesting. This releases huge amounts of green house gases that don't need to be released. If all the straw where baled up and used for building homes, Australia could build tens of thousands of strawbale homes each year.
Straw bale walls are cheap energy wise. Straw bale walls have very low embodied energy, i.e. a lot less energy is used in the production, transportation an construction of a straw bale wall compared to a concrete wall, brick wall or even brick veneer type of wall.
Straw is an excellent insulator. During my Swiss army service I had the joy of sleeping in a hay stack one night. Even though it was getting below freezing point that night we were nice and warm due to the insulation provided by the hay. More scientifically, a rendered straw bale wall has almost 5 times the R-value of a brick veneer wall. A straw bale wall has over twice the minimum recommended R-value for the wall of a house in most parts of Australia. (The R-value is a measure of the resistance of a material to heat flow through it, so the higher the R-value the more insulating a material is.)
Straw bale houses are generally healthy homes. Generally no toxic fumes are released by a straw bale wall that has been rendered with a lime or earthen render.
Straw bale homes provide a feel of calm, safety and comfort due to the thickness of the walls. Deep window seats, and subtle curves can easily be included in straw bale walls due the felxibility of building with straw bales.
There are many more reasons to build with straw bales some of which can be found on the Ausbale website and on the Strawtec website.
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