sheep wool insulation

[saveasteading]

A farmer struggles to sell fleeces at £1. This bag of insulation costs £40. 
If we could just clean the fleeces and square them up it would be a massive benefit to our farmers and to the world  (oh, and to our build costs)

 

[Thedreamer]

There are big supply and demand problems with BWMB. I think they have to much.

 

We have around 35 sheep and in a good year usually about £20.

 

We may consider using fleeces as mulch or composting if we reach point where we have to pay to have it taken away.

[Ferdinand]

55 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

There are big supply and demand problems with BWMB. I think they have to much.

 

We have around 35 sheep and in a good year usually about £20.

 

We may consider using fleeces as mulch or composting if we reach point where we have to pay to have it taken away.

 

That's had quite a bit of coverage from the Beebons.

 

Including Farming Today.

 

They love idiosyncratic peeps doing small scale farming.

 

But if it works for you ... go for it.

 

When I used to read the Beano, there was a story about "Rounding up the sheep", involving feeding them all the food in the store :-). Now we need them square.

[Dudda]

I'd love to use and specify sheep's wool more but it's (or was last I checked) multiple times the cost of fiberglass. 

 

With all the price rises on other buildings materials how has the price of sheep's wool insulation changed over the last two years I wonder. Would love to see the gap to fiberglass close

[Thedreamer]

22 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

That's had quite a bit of coverage from the Beebons.

 

Including Farming Today.

 

They love idiosyncratic peeps doing small scale farming.

 

But if it works for you ... go for it.

 

When I used to read the Beano, there was a story about "Rounding up the sheep", involving feeding them all the food in the store :-). Now we need them square.

 

Crofting is the way of life here for many generations.

 

Most crofts have about the same level of beasts.

 

Presently only larger crofts with good access to hill grazing can run a croft on a full time basis.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Thedreamer

[Ferdinand]

6 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

 

Crofting is the way of life here for many generations.

 

Most crofts have about the same level of beasts.

 

Presently only larger crofts with good access to hill grazing can run a croft on a full time basis.

 

I hope I haven't offended, and thanks for the reply.

 

Down here some BBC programmes seem to have a bit of a fetish for smallholders and hobby farmers doing unusual things.

[Thedreamer]

7 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I hope I haven't offended, and thanks for the reply.

 

Down here some BBC programmes seem to have a bit of a fetish for smallholders and hobby farmers doing unusual things.

 

No not at all.

 

I am not from these parts but family crofts are very important to those that live on them. 

 

Often they can reassemble small islands of land within a sea of bog and heather.

 

Even in the time I have been here a lot more have been split in size or gradually sold for house sites. You then get the small holders and hobby farmers that you refer to.  

[dangti6]

My wife receives chilled medical supplies through the post and these are wrapped with about 2 sq.ft of sheep’s wool. I have been collecting them up and recently I threw some down in one of my loft spaces. Would probably take around a century to fill it but it saves space in the bin throwing it away ?

[SteamyTea]

 λ Sheep wool = 0.039 W.m^-1.K^-1

 

How many sheep would you need if you wanted to have a U-Value of 0.15 W.m².K^-1

 

R = l /  λ

Where l = thickness in metres

 

U = 1 / R

 

I have no idea what the thickness of a fleece is, or the area, or how much is lost after cleaning, treating and processing into batts.

 

But after listening to this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b093hdkw

I may go out and kiss a goat.

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by SteamyTea

[saveasteading]

On 21/10/2021 at 07:49, SteamyTea said:

R = l /  λ

Where l = thickness in metres

 

U = 1 / R

 

It seems to keep the sheep cosier than a layer of fibreglass would.

But I see what you did there:

 

R = Ram

U = Ewe

λ = lamb

 

I have found some stuff on converting wool, and it would seem to need an awful lot of washing, to get rid of manure, lanolin, weeds etc.so perhaps not as 'green' as it might seem.

Maybe try washing a fleece in the cement mixer next summer.

 

 

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, saveasteading said:

I have found some stuff on converting wool, and it would seem to need an awful lot of washing, to get rid of manure, lanolin, weeds etc.so perhaps not as 'green' as it might seem.

Pretty sure it is on one of the higher embodied energy and carbon insulations.

ICE used to have the figures.

[pdf27]

32 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Pretty sure it is on one of the higher embodied energy and carbon insulations.

ICE used to have the figures.

It's all in the emissions of the sheep, not the processing, and that depends heavily on how you count it - they're ruminants (lots of methane) and the land use changes from what would have been largely temperate rainforest in prehistory are pretty severe too.

[SteamyTea]

15 minutes ago, pdf27 said:

not the processing,

And the processing, I don't think Craig Jones looked the larger picture.

One of the problems is that processing wool into insulation is a very small scale business, and anything that is small scale has high fixed overheads.

 

[ADLIan]

Also add the chemicals they (may) use to deter insects and improve the fire performance

[Mr Punter]

I know of a house where they used sheeps wool insulation.  Although it was boron treated they got infested with wool moths which were very difficult to eradicate.