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The CENTAMETER is an innovative new electronic device, which measures the electricity being used and displays the cost per hour on a portable display located inside your home or business.

What is adobe / mudbrick building?

Friday, December 15, 2006
Adobe is a natural building material composed of sand, sandy clay and straw or other organic materials, which is shaped into bricks using wooden frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest extant buildings on the planet. Adobe buildings also offer significant advantages in hot, dry climates; they remain cooler as adobe stores and releases heat very slowly.

An adobe brick is made of clay mixed with water and an organic material such as straw. An adobe wall can serve as a significant heat reservoir. A north-facing (in the Southern Hemisphere) adobe wall may be left uninsulated to moderate heating and cooling. Ideally, it should be thick enough to remain cool on the inside during the heat of the day but thin enough to transfer heat through the wall during the evening. The exterior of such a wall can be covered with glass to increase heat collection. In a passive solar home, such a wall is called a Trombe wall.

Adobe has a relatively dense thermal mass; therefore this type of construction is most useful in tropical climates. In temperate climates it is less effective to heat a structure this way due to heat leaching by the ground and walls.
Adobe / Mud brick construction
Adobe / Mud brick construction