Anne Road Strawbale House 2019

House Notes – Anne Road Strawbale House

Dave and I discussed straw bale building on our very first date and this winter we moved in after years of owner building!  We wanted to have a small environmental footprint so the building process ended up meandering into all sorts of extra details that reduce our energy consumption along the way.  For us, the big advantage of straw wasn’t so much about it being a compostable waste product – it’s really more that we liked the atmosphere that it created in the end product and on our building journey.

We’re pleasantly surprised by how warm it has stayed over winter: We have a small wood heater (39cm wide) although we did go 10 days without lighting it. More typically, we lit it twice a week.  The inside temperature fluctuates with the sun.  In the winter just gone, it often sat at 18 degrees without the heater with 14 degrees being the absolute lowest. When we get curtains that should improve. In summer, the whole house is in shade, we cross-ventilate by opening the top windows and it has sat at 20 degrees most of the time with the maximum being 25 degrees (no air con). It’s certainly not a Passivhaus, but we aimed towards that standard where we could.

So come on over and check it out.

Listen to Jarrod Pickford from The Daylesford Podcast talk to the owners of Anne Road Strawbale House

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