This thesis is an investigation into the moisture performance of straw bales used in the construction of buildings. The principle of taking bales of straw off the field and stacking them up on themselves to form the walls of a simple building is a practise that started over a hundred years ago. The modern form of this building method is more sophisticated, and is spreading world wide from its origins in the arid regions of America. Despite advances in modern methods of construction there has been concern and doubt over the suitability of straw bale for use as a building material in a temperate maritime climate. The main concern being that the higher levels of environmental moisture will have the potential to damage the straw over time. In order to assess the moisture performance of the straw bales in the walls of a building in this damp climate, a simple and effective means of measuring the moisture in-situ has been developed as part of this research. The overarching methodology for this research is to develop a more accurate version of a probe that uses a block of wood to measure moisture. An environmental chamber in the laboratory has been used to establish the hygrothermal relationship between the timber to be used in the probe, and samples of the straw used in construction. This is the first time that a continuous set of sorption and desorption isotherms have been created for samples of straw and timber simultaneously, a process that took six months to complete. This data was used in the design of a new wood block probe, and examples of the new probes were installed in the walls of a straw bale house with a known moisture history. The resulting readings from the new probe were compared to those from a professional agricultural straw moisture probe. These results could be checked against the readings of the relative humidity and temperature in the wall. Forty-eight pairs of the new wood block probe were calibrated in the laboratory. Fourteen diverse examples of straw bale construction were selected as case study buildings. Having been surveyed for this research, a number were then selected to have the new probes installed, and evidence of their moisture performance was recorded. Sufficient data was acquired through this process to confirm the suitability of straw bales for use in the construction of buildings, in a temperate maritime climate.

Energieffektivisering och energisnålare byggnader är idag viktiga faktorer inom byggbranschen. Det som ofta glöms bort, och där forskning saknas, är hur byggfukt påverkar energiförbrukningen. Examensarbetet avser att öka kunskaperna om byggfuktens konsekvenser genom att undersöka hur stort energibehovet är för uttorkning av byggfukt i betongkonstruktioner och undersöka om miljöcertifieringssystemen borde ta hänsyn till energiförbrukningen under produktionen då byggnader certifieras. Alla material och medium strävar efter att befinna sig i fuktmässig jämvikt med sin omgivning. För att byggmaterial ska torka ut till jämvikt krävs en förångning av byggfukt. Då ångbildning gör att materialet blir kallare ökar energibehovet för uppvärmning. I examensarbetet används fuktberäkningsprogrammen KFX03 och WUFI Pro 5.3 för att beräkna uttorkningsmängd och när den sker i betongkonstruktioner. För energiberäkningar programmerades en lathund i Excel för att snabbt och enkelt få fram energibehovet för uttorkning av en byggnad. Tre olika nyproducerade byggnader undersöktes för att uppskatta hur stor uppvärmd betongmängd nya byggnader har. Resultatet visar att energin från uttorkningen i byggnaderna gav en ökning på cirka 5 % relativt till värmeförsörjningen för 50 år, motsvarande drygt 2,5 års förbrukning. Arbetet tyder på att energiförbrukningen för uttorkning av byggfukt utgör en stor påverkan på en byggnads uppvärmningsbehov om också hänsyn tas till de olika uttorkningsförhållandena under produktion och förvaltning. Framförallt energiförluster under produktionen påverkar resultatet och kan förhöja det beräknade energibehovet. Miljö- och energicertifieringssystem borde därför i större utsträckning fokusera på energiförbrukningen under produktion än vad som görs idag. För att bättre kunna svara på i vilken utsträckning uttorkning av byggfukt påverkar energiförbrukningen bör jämförelser mellan olika vct-tal för betong genomföras samt energiberäkningar för att uppskatta energiförluster under produktion. Detta för att kunna svara på hur stor påverkan en byggnads produktionsskede har på miljön och därmed hur stor vikt skedet rimligen bör ha vid en miljöcertifiering. / Energy efficiency and low energy houses are today important factors within the building sector. What’s often forgotten, and with little or no research available, is how building moisture affect energy consumption.  The intention of the thesis is to increase the knowledge of building moistures consequence’s by investigating how large the energy is to dehydrate concrete structures and also to investigate if it should be taken in account by environmental certification when buildings are certified. All material and medium strives to be in moisture equilibrium with its environment. For building materials to dehydrate into equilibrium with its environment evaporation is required. Because evaporation makes the ambient temperature lower the energy consumption for heating increases. In the thesis the moisture calculation software’s KFX03 and WUFI Pro 5.3 are used to calculate the water quantity of dehydration and when it occurs in concrete structures. A fact sheet was programmed, in Excel, for fast and simple energy calculations of dehydration in a building. To estimate the quantity of heated concrete in new buildings three newly produced buildings where studied. The result shows that the energy for dehydrations increased a buildings heating by approximately 5 %, correspondent to roughly 2.5 years of consumption. The work indicates that building moisture has a relatively high impact on a buildings heating, when taking the different condition during construction and living in consideration. Therefore the current environment and energy certification systems should in greater regards focus on energy consumption during construction. To be able to better answer in which extent the drying of building moisture affects energy consumption comparisons should be done in concrete with different water-cement ratio and energy calculation to estimate energy losses during construction. Thus to answer how big effect a buildings construction phase has on the environment and thereby how big significance this phase should have on environment certifications.

The subject of this final thesis is prepared detailed project documentation for the reconstruction of apartment building on Karáskovo Square in Brno - Židenice. The existing building is rectangular and is a part of a apartment terraced buildings. Residential building has a basement and three floors and an attic. The main entrance is oriented to the southwest. Foundation structures are concrete, vertical support system is a brick wall, roof structure is wooden roof standing stool with pleated ceramic tiles.