christian emmel

Hi Brad

I live here in Los Angeles county and I find it very difficult to get straw bales at a reasonable price, I am looking at $6.50 on the cheap end to $17.00 at the high end, and these are not all 3 string either. Most of the agriculture happens in central California and that is about 200 miles north from where I live. However I do agree with the comment made about timber bought at local "Home Depot" kind of places does come from many more miles away. So it boils down to cost effectiveness, is it really worth building with straw?

Christian

Hello Bruno

Just a thought and not sure if anyone else has mentioned it but why not build the north facing wall out of straw, this will meet all your insulation requirements and you could use the wall as a load bearing to hold the roof, plus, you still can use the cob on both the inside and outside of the wall to keep the same look as the rest of the building. The roof angle degree question may be answered here http://earthship.com/ , from what I have seen and researched you want the angle of the roof to be somewhere near the middle of the highest sun during winter and summer, this should allow for you to get the most sun. I think its wonderful that you are trying to build a greenhouse using the earthship concept.

Good luck

Christian