[GSBN] prefab strawbale

[Derek Roff]

--On Thursday, July 30, 2009 7:09 AM -0400 cmagwood at kos.net wrote:

> In terms of transportation... all the bales, lumber, sand and masonry
> ingredients get shipped from a source to a job site. Whether those
> materials come to the "factory" first, get assembled and then
> continue on to the job site seems pretty minor.

I think what you are doing is great, Chris, but I contest your 
statement above on transportation.  When materials are shipped first to 
a factory that is independent of the job site, the metaphor of the 
materials "continuing on to the job site" is misleading.  Each case 
would be different, depending on the locations of the sources, the 
factory, and the job site.  But doubling the amount of embodied energy 
due to transportation, loading and unloading, is a good average guess. 
And Bruce King recently reported that the proportional embodied energy 
of moving dense materials like earth, concrete, and sand, is very 
significant.

Having the factory at the job site, as you mention, avoids this extra 
embodied energy.  I am eager to learn more about your methods.

Derelict

Derek Roff
Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: derek at unm.edu