Category: bale related

Testimony about one of our strawbale homes in the snow

Attached are some photos taken this AM of the house - 3-4" of snow which is pretty good for Campo. Low 20's outside at night. Interior drops to 72 when the woodstove is cold or overnight, and the whole house heats quite uniformly. We haven't used the mini-split heater. I know I harp on this, but such performance is remarkable. This house is just so damn easy to live in

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Strawbale Building Hands-on Workshop 2/9/19

There are still a few spots left for the Strawbale Building Workshop we will be teaching at Terra Corazon Farm in Valley Center on Sat., Feb 9, 2019, as part of the San Diego Sustainable Living Institute’s new Natural Building Program. This will be a fun day spent in a relaxed and safe environment learning …

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SD County drops fees for ADUs / guest houses!

More good news about building an ADU (aka guest house, granny flat): the County of San Diego has followed the City’s lead and reduced permitting fees for ADUs! The County allows an ADU to be added to any property with an existing house (as long as you meet certain zoning regulations). A detached ADU can …

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Saving the world with carbon-smart materials like straw

It sounds far-fetched at first, but building with straw and other bio-based, carbon-sequestering materials can help fight climate change. We can go beyond “doing less harm” with building, we can actually do some good. Check out this chart from Architecture 2030’s Carbon-Smart Materials Palette showing that straw bales not only cause less carbon dioxide to …

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Our new net zero strawbale article is published

Our newest article on high-performance strawbale building is out in this month’s Home Power magazine! The article is all about our recent strawbale project that achieved Net Zero Energy Building certification through the Living Building Challenge. This home will be part of the USGBC’s Green Homes Tour on Oct 21, 2018. Here’s a link to …

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