! the first wofati - allerton abbey- version 0.7

The good news is that it is 50 degrees inside when it is 25 degrees outside. Much easier to get out of bed at 50 than 25.
Practical considerations for that climate is to put air tubes through the berm and a solar collector on the south side to drive heat through the berm in the summer. Air temperature well above 110 every day in direct contact with the dirt instead of having to pass through the insulation of the logs. The heat slowly works its way through the dirt toward the logs during the summer while the cool dirt next to the logs is still cooling the wofati during the summer heat. The radiant heat inside the berm traveling toward the logs maintains radiant warmth inside the wofati during the winter. the radiant heat traveling out from the inside of the berm prevents the cooling of the dirt next to the logs. My goal would be to keep the radiant temperature of the logs 65 to 70 degrees all year. They need to stick a compost thermometer between the logs so that the berm temperature can be monitored. I am guessing from the graff that it is probably about 45.

My factory built house holds a 10 degree difference with the outside so a 25 degree difference is pretty good.

Before the front wall got replaced with straw bale:

Fantastic....congratulation for your work

What does it look like now?

Please ask guests staying there to post their experience and pictures here so tha twe who have been falowing this experament can learn the positive and negative outcomes.
Are the recording thermomators from last winter still in place? Did anyone try incerting the compost thermomiter between the logs to see what the earth temperature is in the berm against the wall?

At this time, I suspect that allerton abbey will not be ready to try the ATI test this winter.   Hopefully the structure can be finished in time to do the test next year.

paul wheaton wrote:At this time, I suspect that allerton abbey will not be ready to try the ATI test this winter.   Hopefully the structure can be finished in time to do the test next year.

Cool, things are like that. It would be interesting to know if the general overall inside temperature has gone up from last year sometime this winter. It did seem quite livable even with no fire BTW, so long as a coat/sweater is worn. A bit nippy on the hands maybe, but still livable. Using wood for cooking might be enough to keep the hands happy too. By this I mean using wood just when cooking, not having a wood stove for cooking that has fire in it all the time. I should add that this does not mean comfortable as I understand Paul uses comfortable.

Many hands of gone into making Allerton Abbey and it more hands and a natural builder are needed to finish it. The front wall was replaced with strawbale and before the interior front wall can be completed some boards need to be removed. Also, Erica says that the other sections of wall need junk pole 'x's wired to the exterior frame before it can be cobbed. The wall shown here has the 'x's tied in.

We came and saw the wofati's and it was so cool! Definitely a whole different experience to see them in person!