"Light straw clay--straw mixed with clay slip--is a code compliant high-performance, low-impact building material with excellent insulation and moisture handling qualities. This highly illustrated ...step-by-step guide to light straw clay for stud, timber, pole, and other framing styles covers material specifications and best use, mixing and installation, retrofits, code compliance, and finishing and maintenance."--
► We present an attempt to combine a housing project with straw bales with an extensive testing program. ► The measurements include the laboratory and in situ measurements. ► The in situ measurements ...include the behavior of temperature and relative humidity inside the straw bale wall under natural conditions. ► The laboratory measurements include bale dimensions, bale weight, compression test, moisture content and pH.
This research aimed to evaluate a straw bale house located in Bavaria, Germany. An extensive test program was carried out. The experimental work includes compression tests, moisture content, thermal stability of bales and pH. The in situ work includes temperature and relative humidity inside the straw bale wall. The stress–strain behavior of straw bales was investigated including nonlinearity and anisotropy. Thermal stability of bales under constant temperature and relative humidity was studied considering time dependence. The moisture content of straw bale was about 11%, while pH value inside the bale was about 7.29. Moreover, the temperature and the relative humidity between the interior (inside straw bale wall) and the exterior were investigated.
There is a growing interest in low-tech technologies, drawing on the tradition of building with organic and unprocessed materials. One such technology is straw bale constructions. This paper presents ...an example of a timber-frame building in which straw bales were used as wall filling. The building is located in northern Poland and is a small, year-round single-family dwelling. Based on the available literature and experimental studies, it can be concluded that straw bale technology carries several potential threats related to the selected technology, quality of workmanship, and climatic conditions. The article describes the measurements of the air tightness of the building, the heat transfer coefficient U and the analysis of the humidity of straw walls. The study results confirm the risks related to the low air tightness of the building and the risk of water vapour condensation in the external partitions.
