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Lego Block Structures as a Sub-Kelvin Thermal Insulator
- jacquesm 7y agoI can't help but wonder what the R value of a house sized wall built out of LEGO would be. Now it just so happens... I don't think the local council would approve but screw it, it's for science.
- LegitShady 7y agoJames may has special on that I think...regular sized blocks though
- jacquesm 7y agoThey tore it down before this important measurement was made.
- sjg007 7y agoYou'd have to coat it with something UV resistant since ABS degrades in the sun but sure why not. There's a variant of this using foam and concrete. https://www.deseret.com/2000/4/9/19500764/concrete-foam-lego-houses-are-efficient-wind-resistant https://www.deseret.com/2000/4/9/19500764/concrete-foam-lego...
- jacquesm 7y agoThat's how a lot of foundations are poured here. Super clever system.
- LegitShady 7y agoICF (insulated concrete forms) are pretty common depending on where you live. You have to build the formwork to pour the concrete walls anyways, so building it to stay in place and act as insulation is just smart provided you can reliably get concrete everywhere you want. I like them, although for larger structures the formwork gets re-used so generally if they're insulated its after.
- gav 7y agoI helped a friend build a house out of those foam blocks: it's a lot of fun and you're able to bring a bunch of people together in a "barn raising" tradition that you wouldn't be able to do with traditional construction.
- amelius 7y agoI wonder what the cost would be ...
- jacquesm 7y agoAbout $8 / kg. At two grams / brick that's 500 bricks. I'd be more worried about how strong it would be, though I've seen an insanely high tower (15 meters) made out of bricks so presumably they can handle a lot of pressure. If you tried making a 3 x 3 meter wall out of bricks and made it 10 cm thick (a standard clay building brick) that would come to 100 x 300 x 10 bricks = 300,000 bricks, or $6000 worth or bricks! You could hollow out the wall a bit, to maybe 25% dense or even less for a reduction in price.
- wiredfool 7y agoI'm disappointed that there's not an acknowledgment of the (speculating here) 6 yr old who donated legos to the cause after one of the investigators stepped on them barefoot at 4am.
- A_Parr 7y agoThat's what they get for not picking up their toys.