Need help with insulation for cold climate

[Bob Rowlands]

From what I have read it gets extremely cold and windy in Mongolia. Mongolia is an arid countrty. Traditionaly Mongolians use heavy felt to insulate their yurts. I'm guessing they still use felt in this high tech world. In the past they made felt from their livestock. Perhaps some still carry on that tradition today.

I have a gut feeling that high tech

insulation

system is not superior to felt, when it comes to actually holding in the heat during real cold temperatures. The liners in my Sorel winter boots were 1/2" felt. Extremely good at holding in the heat, and lasted a long time. I doubt the international space station is lined with felt though. lol

[hierony]

Originally Posted by Seigan

What you say seems very logical but that wouldhowever not explain why the higher density seems to demand less thickness to have the same thermal conductivity (as it is cunductivity you explain).

Yeah, that puzzles me a bit (I'd love to know more details, such as a source paper). The best I can figure is that since the fibers are the main conduits of heat the higher density has the same number of fibers (amount of material) in a thinner section as would a less dense mat that is thicker but has the same amount of material.

[Bob Rowlands]

OK here is something to think about. I am cooking up a pot of vegetable beef soup right now. I just placed a small ladle of soup in a bowl to taste it. It is boiling hot. I added a shot of cold water to cool it, and gave a quick stir to make it make it cool enough to taste. Interestingly, what held the heat in the soup was the beef, the densest ingredient. So that got me thinking.

We all know mass holds heat and resists temperature change. That's why a radiant floor

heating

system with the piping embedded in concrete acts like a 'heat flywheel', or a concrete floor in a greenhouse holds the heat. So, perhaps we could wrap our yurts with one of those concrete inmpregnated cloth tent covers the military uses? Just hose that sucker down and voila! instant quonset yurt that'll hold the heat good!!! lol

Wool clothes are absolutely the best in a wet climate. Wool is dense, like me. The density resists heat transfer, yet breathes. Stays nice and warm even when wet, assuming the wearer is still alive. I think NASA would insulate their spacecraft with the stuff if it wasn't so dang heavy. That's why they use 850 fill down between the inside and outside shells. lol

[kochevnik]

Hello Gentlemen.

Jumping on this thread as the winter is coming. As many of you know, I am a turkic yurt owner with natural felt cover. I am thinking of using the foil bubble wrap around the yurt on top of felt, then TYVEK and then wateproof canvas.

TYVEK is used by

groovy yurts

quite a bit. What do you think?

I will be using Jotul 602 for

heating

.

[dove design]

There are some european companies making vapor open smart membranes available the US and Europe. They also make very serious tapes. These are the products used in the most efficient buildings being built today. The membranes would not be left exposed to the weather but will control the vapor so that your finished top membrane could concentrate on resisting the bulk water, snow and UV.

https://proclima.com/systems/intello is for the interior and they have exterior membranes as well.

https://sigatapes.com/ makes majapell and other membranes.

[froit]

in Mongolia, with -45 at night (in some places, some nights), we consider two layers of 14 mm felts adequate. That is, on a 6-meter with a 10kW wood or coal-burner in the centre. In the morning is might freeze lightly, inside.
Most ger here will have frozen snow/ice on the back part of the roof all winter.

[Elin]

Hi,
I'm also planning to build a yurt in the north of Sweden. I did a lot of research but this topic is very useful. I read that you have a

dome

for the yurt, can you give me some advice where I can buy a

dome

here in Sweden? I can't find any.
We hesitate between sheep wool and hemp wool for isolation.

[froit1]

We dont sell domes, sorry, I dont know where you got that information.
We make and sell only Mongolian style yurts, with wool felt, one door, etc.
We sold a few to people in Sweden, but I don't know where and what.
Because our yurts are made to be moved, hemp is not our choice. If you leave our yurts standing for longer periods, you MUST take off the covers AT LEAST once a year, netter is two. Yurts are not houses, they are tents.
If you think about building a round house with a hole in the roof, hemp may work for you. But if you build for low-energy and ecological, I would probably make it square, which is cheaper, and absolutely no hole in the roof!