Straw bale construction offers a renewable,sustainable and proven alternative to mainstream building methods;still,little is known about its airflow characteristics.To this end,the intent of this paper is to evaluate ...Straw bale construction offers a renewable,sustainable and proven alternative to mainstream building methods;still,little is known about its airflow characteristics.To this end,the intent of this paper is to evaluate airtightness of fully constructed and plastered straw bale walls as well as individual plain straw bales.The first experiment entailed measuring the influence of straw bale orientation on airflow characteristics with the finding that straw bale considered alone has poor air flow-retarding characteristics and that plaster is the primary air barrier.A second experiment involved thirty plastered straw bale specimens using three different plaster types.From this experiment,a crack grading system was developed and is herein proposed as a tool to evaluate plaster performance as an air barrier.A third experiment validated the crack grade system through application on four fully constructed straw bale walls.Practical use of the crack grading system was demonstrated on a case study straw bale house in Radomlje,Slovenia,where the predicted air tightness results were validated through comparison to results of blower door tests.展开更多
This paper presents preliminary data on a series of building comfort experiments conducted in the field.We performed physical in-situ measurements and solicited responses from 409(184 female;225 male)university studen...This paper presents preliminary data on a series of building comfort experiments conducted in the field.We performed physical in-situ measurements and solicited responses from 409(184 female;225 male)university students in six different classrooms at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst during three seasons(fall,winter and spring).Our questions focused on student perception of comfort in varied environmental(temperature and humidity,and air speed)conditions.We collected records of student academic performance in the classes,correlating their comfort perceptions to their test scores.Statistical analysis of classroom environ-mental variables,thermal satisfaction,and student scores suggest that by enhancing thermal comfort,we can improve academic performance.展开更多
基金supported in part by the Slovene Research Agency,No.252256-1/07the Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund,No.11012-47/2012.
文摘Straw bale construction offers a renewable,sustainable and proven alternative to mainstream building methods;still,little is known about its airflow characteristics.To this end,the intent of this paper is to evaluate airtightness of fully constructed and plastered straw bale walls as well as individual plain straw bales.The first experiment entailed measuring the influence of straw bale orientation on airflow characteristics with the finding that straw bale considered alone has poor air flow-retarding characteristics and that plaster is the primary air barrier.A second experiment involved thirty plastered straw bale specimens using three different plaster types.From this experiment,a crack grading system was developed and is herein proposed as a tool to evaluate plaster performance as an air barrier.A third experiment validated the crack grade system through application on four fully constructed straw bale walls.Practical use of the crack grading system was demonstrated on a case study straw bale house in Radomlje,Slovenia,where the predicted air tightness results were validated through comparison to results of blower door tests.
文摘This paper presents preliminary data on a series of building comfort experiments conducted in the field.We performed physical in-situ measurements and solicited responses from 409(184 female;225 male)university students in six different classrooms at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst during three seasons(fall,winter and spring).Our questions focused on student perception of comfort in varied environmental(temperature and humidity,and air speed)conditions.We collected records of student academic performance in the classes,correlating their comfort perceptions to their test scores.Statistical analysis of classroom environ-mental variables,thermal satisfaction,and student scores suggest that by enhancing thermal comfort,we can improve academic performance.
