-Andrew

Andrew,

Thanks for the great question. Here is food for thought: Ceilings, frame walls, and stem walls are always an option for plumbing and electrical locations. When you do have to run these systems through a bale wall, here is how you do it.

Plumbing in a straw bale home.

Plumbing leaks are more critical within straw bale walls than within stick frame walls for obvious reasons: straw rots pretty quickly if it gets wet and stays wet - a lot quicker than 2×4s would rot. As a precaution, it is best to keep most of the plumbing within interior walls and run the water into the house through a stem wall. The highest standards of fitting can help minimize the risk of leaks. Careful planning eliminates unsightly messes at this point. Before beginning construction, you should plan for water to enter where pipes will not be seen in plain view, such as under a sink or in a mechanical closet. Use of the stem wall is appropriate for running water into your structure.

Electrical wiring in a straw bale home.

The electrical system in a bale home is the same as in a stick frame home from the circuit breaker to the switches and fixtures. However, electrical wiring has different installation methods in a straw bale wall. UF (Underground Feeder) cable is recommended for its durability and moisture resistance. A metal “needle” is used to thread the wire from the exterior to the interior where necessary. A chainsaw is used to cut a 1.5 inch channel in the straw bale walls. The wire is stuffed into the channel or in the seam between bales and run to switch and fixture locations. Plug and switch boxes are screwed to a wooden stake which is driven into the bale to keep the box in place.

Thanksgiving: what a wonderful idea. It is a day to give thanks for all that you have. In this current time of economic turmoil and governmental transitioning, you may find your head hanging low or your level of anxiety pushing through the roof. It may be difficult to add any of the recent events in this nation to your list of things to be thankful for during this Thanksgiving holiday. In a country where our worries cannot compare to the hardships of others, I would like to offer a positive spin on this time of hectic worry: that perhaps we should be thankful that sometimes things, whether bad or good, happen, and that whether they have a positive or negative effect momentarily, there is always a lesson to learn. I recall talking to my late great Uncle Charlie, an immigrant from Italy married to an Irish immigrant living in Southie (Boston) during the Great Depression. He said that electricity was too costly to waste and the family would put some coins in a meter that supplied power only when they needed it some nights and when the power that had been bought ran out, the family went to sleep - no matter how many errands you still had or if you had already cooked dinner. Perhaps that type of system was not so uncommon, but the way he told that story, I knew, the lights were not often on. “What do you worry about?” he asked in 1993. “Things are easy, life is wonderful. Always remember that.” Those were times when the Frederico’s of the US had to change their name to Fredericks to get a decent job and your family did not look at you if you married out of your culture. This country has come a long way and it will go much further. We all have to keep our sights on the things we should be thankful for, even if those things are tough reminders to value our way of life and the opportunities we are afforded.

This year I am making Indian Pudding, a corn-based dessert that early New Englanders made at the holidays, and still a Boston favorite. It is definitely a recipe to share… Indian Pudding Recipe

Green SUV? This gas and electricy guzzler is one with nature. The picture tells us so.

Hogwash. Rubbish. Poppycock. Or my favorite: Bull. It is all the same as Greenwash. It’s not uncommon to get excited about a few great products that boast to “save rain forests and fuzzy little animals” or SUVs that are so eco-friendly that flowers shoot from their exhaust pipes. While Company X is planting a tree for every ten dollars customers spend on their clothes, the clothes are being manufactured by poor, starving children halfway across the world. This type of boasting about being green when the information is censored and/or skewed is labeled as greenwash: it consists of blatant exaggerations and misleading notions mostly, but may involve noting positive aspects of a product or service while strategically ignoring the product’s or service’s negative qualities.

Greenwash is hype about “eco-friendly”, “green”, “environmentally responsible” things. It exists because people want green/healthy products and services nowadays. Marketing professionals have picked up on the demand for this green market niche and use it to the fullest advantage. We are all victims of Greenwash. This “Greenwash Guide” reference guide is a funny, informational and witty piece. Give it a glance. Learn to better point out advertisements that try to pull the 100% organic, unbleached wool over your eyes… The best piece of information I came away from this piece with: American companies are under no obligation to steer away from exaggerating the ‘wonderful’ qualities of their products and services on their websites and in advertisements. US advertisers are able to do the following: ThinkDwell

1. “use environmental images capable of making a sweeping claim of environmental benefit”,
2. “be technically or narrowly correct, without looking at the bigger picture”,
3. “present claims as universally accepted when the scientific basis is under dispute of inconclusive”,
4. “make claims indicating an environmental benefit that while literally true, is unlikely to happen in practice”
5. “use exaggerating language”

That means its your job to determine what is Greenwash.

Good luck.

River Wired explains how they test the effects of green roofs on the heat island effect and how they work.

Depicts 60,000 plastic bags: the number Americans consume every five seconds.

Says Chris Jordan of his artwork:

“Running the Numbers
An American Self-Portrait

Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming…

Currently I am working on new Running the Numbers images that will look at some issues that are more global in scope: the world’s oceans, African issues, species extinctions, and a few others.”

Green Open House - ca. 1818 home retro-fitted with modern green building systems

The NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) is hosting an open house on Saturday, October 4, from 10 am to 4 pm. The organization has coordinated with home owners and facility managers to provide access to numerous green buildings. Visit the site to see if there is an open house in your area and drop in to ask questions and see the installations that make new and remodeled homes more energy efficient. Just click on the map search, enter your zip code, and click GO. You can also search for projects that involve a specific type of green feature, like a geothermal heat pump, grey-water collection, or LEED rating in the drop down menu at left. I’m going to visit a home built in 1818 in Andover, MA that exhibits grid-tied Photovoltaics, a geothermal heat pump, a tankless water heater, and an alternative fuel vehicle for daily use.

Excellent: people are catching onto the benefits of investing in radiant heating systems. This video gives us a good idea of how radiant floors are installed. They cost more than your standard forced air system, but in the long run, your home will be more comfortable (warm floors heat interiors more evenly and are nice to walk on without slippers or socks) and will not have dust, mold, mites and other allergens that forced air systems send through the air in your house. This greatly benefits people with respiratory ailments such as asthma or emphysema as well as allergy sufferers.

Cleaner air, more comfortable temperatures throughout your home. So why does anyone bother with any other system? Cost is usually the inhibitor here. I found this info on radiantheat.net:

“ A typical force-air furnace system for a 2,000 sq. ft. home will cost you between $3,800.00-$4,500.00 versus a hydronic boiler system costing about $4,000.00-$5,000.00. The average life expectancy of a forced-air furnace may be between 10-25 years where the average boiler system can last between 30-45 years. The cost of filters and other maintenance including, bearings, belts, fans and motors for forced-air systems can dramatically increase the amount of your investment from a service standpoint. Radiant heating systems are less maintenance and more efficient which means less cost to operate.”

When you take into the account that with a radiant system your energy bills will be reduced, the value of your home is increased, and your indoor air quality is improved, the upfront costs should no longer an inhibitor; it should be seen as a worthy investment that will pay back the cost difference plus in the long run.

Applying Earthen Plaster 'building without borders'

Building Green TV has a great video clip with information on earthen plasters, the primary sealant for straw bale construction. These plasters are available in several finish colors, eliminating the need to paint the house upon completion of plastering. Some plasters are all-natural and contain no toxic ingredients (something we definitely recommend that you look into when your builder is specifying which plaster you use). I also highly recommend, if you are researching straw bale homes, you pay attention to Building Green TV’s excellent resources. Check out the earthen plasters clip here.

Drum roll, please…

Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d  >>”CHING”<<

“I’m not a tree hugger, I’m an electric bill freak.” -My boyfriend

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