About this fire issue: I've read some craaaaaaazy sounding specs about fires inside hexayurts possibly reaching a bazillion degrees. Can anyone back this information up? And, I'm considering a sacrificial research burn at illumination of a small hexayurt to test this theory-- possibly Monday post burn, 9 pm, illumination village, bring a lawn chair and some booze.
*This from "hexayurt safety information" <http://www.appropedia.org/index.php?title=Hexayurt_Safety_Information&action=history>* Important safety notice. Please do not build hexayurts out of any flammable material. This goes double for foam! In the past, people have built them from non-fire rated materials including polyisocyanurate insulation (Tuff-R from Dow, often sold at Home Depot.) I do not regard that as safe if the building is exposed to sources of ignition like open flame, or mains electrical devices. Any non-fire rated substance should not be used for camping, and is generally suitable only for demonstration purposes. Although free-standing foam may not burn well, an enclosure made of foam can burn catastrophically. The foam traps the heat, reflecting it back to the fire and quickly igniting the entire building. According to this article<http://static.monolithic.com/foam/fire_hazard/index.html>, temperatures can reach 10,000 degrees and buildings have literally been blown apart by the sheer force of the flames. Warehouse-sized buildings can be fully engulfed in under five minutes. The article is about urethane foam, but polyisocyanurate will probably behave similarly. http://static.monolithic.com/foam/fire_hazard/index.html Here is some video of a sheet of R-MAX (which is very similar to Tuff-R) being set on fire. As expected, it does not burn well in open air. However, this should not give a false sense of security about foam-lined buildings. Foam manufacturers used to think their foam was "self-extinguishing" - but in an enclosed space, it is not. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=36DB80EAF1D4161B (shot by Arthur Zwern of http://progressivebuildingsolutions.com) In addition, bidirectional filament tape has turned out to be *very*flammable, and burns hot enough to ignite Tuff-R type insulation. This is a "negative synergy" - the two materials together are more of a fire risk than either alone, because the fast-burning tape can ignite the boards. We highly recommend covering all exposed filament tape with foil tape, which is a few dollars a roll at Home Depot and similar places. http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt/browse_thread/thread/99fbdd6cf9ddaca8has pictures of the test conducted by Spiral which revealed this problem. Thanks, Spiral! Estimation of fire risk for any given situation is a decision that only the person building the hexayurt can make. I recommend you watch the video, get a clear sense of what's going on, and make your own judgments. All we do is make the information available, and you make the decision. Please, put in the extra work and source the safest possible materials. This is your responsibility. On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 7:09 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Today's Topic Summary > > Group: http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt/topics > > - Bulk purchasing Thermax HD or other fire-safe hexayurt > materials<#14402989566b940b_group_thread_0>[1 Update] > - framed hexayurts <#14402989566b940b_group_thread_1> [1 Update] > > Bulk purchasing Thermax HD or other fire-safe hexayurt > materials<http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt/t/f32ad9329f47d272> > > Lance Culp <[email protected]> Feb 05 12:30AM > > Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 23:34:13 -0800 > Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Bulk purchasing Thermax HD or other fire-safe > hexayurt materials > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > Sound like a plan. Any ballpark idea of what the minimum order would > be? > On Feb 1, 2014 8:13 AM, "Richard Ginn" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Let's make a list of all the suppliers and what their minimum order > is, and what price breaks we would get at what volumes of purchase. > > > > > > On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project) > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > They're tougher. > They're not that much more expensive. > They won't catch fire. > I feel like this would be a great year to actually fix the supply > chain issues around Thermax HD (or equivalents from other manufacturers), > do a container load bulk purchase, and start moving people off R-MAX etc. > until there's a comprehensive solution for the fire risk. I really want to > solve this problem before somebody gets hurt. > > > > > http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Safety_Information > > Vinay > -- > Vinay Gupta > > > > Free Science and Engineering in the Global Public Interest > > > http://bit.ly/gupta_arc - the Gupta State Failure Management Archive > http://bit.ly/gupta_ark - or see it directly on Archive.org > > > > > > http://hexayurt.com - free/open next generation human sheltering > http://hexayurt.com/plan - the whole systems, big picture vision > > > > > > "In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an > invincible summer" - Albert Camus > > Twitter/Skype/Gizmo/Gtalk/AIM: hexayurt > UK Cell : +44 (0) 7500 895568 / USA VOIP (+1) 775-743-1851 > > > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hexayurt" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to [email protected]. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hexayurt" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to [email protected]. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hexayurt" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to [email protected]. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > framed hexayurts<http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt/t/2535008f8316a1af> > > dylan toymaker <[email protected]> Feb 04 09:09AM -0800 > > For anyone who wants to use stick framing techniques for hexayurts, > i found a set of metal brackets to make it way easier. > > http://www.strongtie.com/products/DIY/GT2-GT6-GTF.html# > > scroll down to see the full system gallery. > > > Dylan > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "hexayurt" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. 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