Dr. Thoma insisted, and the manager replied, irritated: “Listen, I have been working at the Institute for many years, and I have tested everything one could test in the timber industry. You should be glad if it can even withstand the F30 test. It will definitely not last any longer.” Finally, Dr. Thoma offered to pay for every minute of the test and the manager agreed, shook his head, and started the test.
0 Comments
Dr. Thoma had initially claimed that although made of wood, Holz100 was a completely different structure and asked for them to examine how long the wall would last beyond F30. In response, the manager looked at Dr. Thoma as if he were an idiot and replied, “I said F30”.
It is one of the best known institutes of its kind in Europe, and it has the largest furnace for fire testing in Europe. A manager of the institute said, “It is a wooden wall, so let’s try to run the F30 test and see how it does.” This test examines whether a wall can withstand a flame of 1000 degrees on one side for 30 minutes.
The first serious issue that Dr. Erwin Thoma came across in Germany was fire protection. In the 1970s and 1980s, wood houses were not allowed to be built with more than one floor. It was believed to be too dangerous because timber would burn quickly. Dr. Thoma decided to attain a fire safety certificate at the IBS Institute.
Dr. Thoma guarantees his Holz100 houses for 50 years against moisture and mold. He has already built over 1000 houses in 33 countries, from the tropics to the Arctic Circle and, so far, has not received a single complaint.
Lower Saxony's research has revealed recently that 80% of all homes equipped with styrofoam thermal insulation have developed mildew between the wall and the styrofoam. Mold is one of the worst poisons of all that can toxicate residential buildings.
Moisture is yet another problem in construction. Water vapor and condensation is such a difficult issue that no company in the world can guarantee construction materials free of condensation and mold growth for more than 5 years.
The test room was at a room temperature without heating, and the outside temperature was -10 degrees C'. The test measured the time, in which the internal wall would reach 0 degrees C'. To reach 0 C', It took 2 days for the prefab wall, the insulated brick wall took 10 days, and finally the solid wood wall (holz100) required over a month of time.
In a laboratory experiment at the University of Graz, three walls with identical heat transfer coefficients were compared: an internally insulated prefabricated wall made of gypsum and particle board; a brick wall with Polystyrene insulation; and a 30 cm solid wood wall (holz100).
Over time, both the Frauenhofer and the Graz Technical University confirmed the results and issued relevant certificates. The U value does not tell us everything, however; it turns out to be a poor manipulation created to favor thermal insulation manufacturers.
As such, a 36 cm thick Holz100 wall would provide a similar insulation to a 75 cm thick, solid, glue-laminated wooden wall (CLT) or a 10 m thick reinforced concrete wall. Leaving out chemicals and toxins in the processing of Holz100 surprisingly led it to break the world record in thermal insulation for building materials. The results were so unbelievable that initially the Frauenhofer Institute in Stuttgart denied to issue a certificate.
Absence of glue between layers create microscopic air gaps. There are additional air channels between some layers, allowing for improved thermal insulation. In this field, it has been so far assumed that the highest heat transfer coefficient (U-value) that wood can achieve is 0.14. However, this is true for glue laminated wood. Unglued and mechanically linked walls of Dr. Thoma have achieved a result twice as efficient; a U-value of 0.078.
The Center for Chinese Healing Arts made of Holz100 built on the river in Gars am Kamp, Austria, was flooded by a hundred-year flood for four months after it was opened. After the water had subsided, only a bit of cosmetic work and replacement of floorboards required to be completed - and the building was ready to be used again.
Elements prefabricated in such a way were delivered to the project site, and the assembly of a “turnkey” single family home only took 1 to 2 days for completion. When humidity changes, timber swells or shrinks, but its length never changes. The cross structure of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal layers provide incredible stability similar to that offered by a concrete wall, as well as an exceptional durability of the form, even if such a house is flooded.
Its walls were mainly 36 cm thick and consisted of five layers of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal wooden boards. All layers were joined by dry wooden pegs that swelled with moisture from the surrounding environment and formed an inseparable structure. A water, curd and lime mix acted as grease to reduce resistance when driving the pegs through the wooden boards with a hydraulic press.
He had to postpone his work in this area for later because, as it turned out, he still had many obstacles to first overcome. Dr. Thoma developed and patented his own technology of wooden building systems. He called the technology Holz100 (“Wood”100), because Holz100 buildings were made of 100% wood in with absolutely no chemicals, screws or nails.
Dr. Thoma wanted to build houses where people would be surrounded only and completely by wood, without the use of chemicals and toxins, to create an atmosphere similar to old wooden huts he knew from his childhood. They had a uniquely positive atmosphere. Gaining insight into the mystery of this well-being material has become a quiet passion of Dr. Thoma.
The company grew and Mr. Thoma started building houses from solid wood, which, in the 1980's, was completely against the development of modern building systems at the time. Wooden houses were usually made of frame structures, in which mixed materials such as wood, foil, styrofoam, and others were used together.
As it turns out, this knowledge was already in use in ancient Rome. In their records, moonwood was found to be used in building warships, as it was not prone to be attacked by harmful crustaceans. Julius Caesar even instituted the death penalty for ship builders who used wood other than moonwood. Pliny, a historian and Roman writer, also wrote about moonwood. Similar laws existed practically in every high culture in human history.
If the tree is harvested down during the waning moon phase, the resulting timber is so resistant to pests and fungi that the use of any wood preservatives or other chemicals is absolutely unnecessary. Such wood has the potential to last for hundreds of years without any maintenance or chemical treatment.
The only significant discovery was that it was controlled by the electromagnetic field surrounding the tree. It can be said that the moon affects the water contained in wood rather than the wood itself, thus improving properties of the wood.
This can be described as the smallest mechanical mixture that exists. This phenomenon brings quantum physics into mind. The water molecule in this state is no longer in a liquid, gas, or solid state – it is in a fourth state described as gelled or gelatinous. Once the moon phase changes, these molecules separate which is scientifically inexplicable today.
This phenomenon is poorly researched and contains many secrets yet to unfold. Some theories claim that such clusters carry information. The ETH Institute in Zurich discovered that during the waning moon, individual molecules of water disconnected from the clusters and temporarily combined with single molecules of cellulose on the surface of capillaries.
Next, the research concentrated on the intermolecular interactions in wood - most importantly those related to water. It was discovered that such interactions, similar to tides, also changed under the influence according to the phases of the moon. Water in its liquid state always manifests in systems called clusters.
It was also discovered that each tree would form an electromagnetic field around it. One could think of this as some kind of an aura. The field's potential would increase and decrease in step with the phases of the moon.
|
Archives
September 2019
Categories
All
|