I thought you might be interested in yesterday's transcript from an mechanical engineer who I released from a project, due to his lack of interest in architecture that uses walls and roof constructed of earth. You will see he is unwilling to work outside the culture of industrial production given his interest in "plastic sheeting, cellulose insulation, steel studs, fiberglass, urethane foam". I asked him to submit a proposal to design the geothermal heating and cooling system. Here was his reply:

>>>"R" or "U" values for the walls and window areas is going to present a
major problem. The fact that the adobe walls have a very high thermal mass
just means that it will take longer than some other materials to reach the
extermes of outdoor ambient conditions during the winter and summer. Once
those conditions are reached the heat loss in winter and gain in summer is
controlled by the walls "R" value of .41. The double pain windows have a
higher "R" value than the walls. With "R" values this low, the equipment
will have to be significantly oversized (compared to a well insulated
structure of the same size) and will be called on to run at full capacity
for many more hours during high load (heating or cooling) conditions.
Without at least R-19 walls and a R-25 roof, I will not put my name on a
system design because I know the home owner will be very upset over their
high electric costs. Recognizing that they probably want the "adobe exterior look", you can still give up 6" of its thickness (leaving 12" adobe brick) to accommodate wood or steel studs and 4" to 6 " of fiberglass, urethane foam, or cellulose insulation, any of which will give you a R-20 to 24 wall and replace the
heavy, 12" compacted earth roof with 12" of fiberglass (covered with
decking)giving you a much lighter, R-48 roof. Between the insulation and the
adobe,it would be wise (and relatively inexpensive) to add a sheet plastic
vapor barrier to enable humidity control inside the structure.<<

I followed with:


Dear Mr. XXXXX,

Its seems that your services are incompatible with the design of an
adobe house for our clients. Under no circumstances would we
consider replacing mud-brick with the materials you have suggested as
a condition for submitting a quote. Thank you very much for your
insight and assistance.

Sincerely,

RAEL