In the following quote is a Grok summary about Dr. Eng. Erwin Thoma and his work (corrected in some places):
Unfurtunately most of his work is only available in German and that includes his books and his speeches and Interviews. He is a very good speaker and you will quickly notice that he burns for (and is in love with) what he is doing. The website of his company is the following, available in english and other languages including Russian (although with quite a lot less content compared to the German website): Thoma Holz.
There are a many good interviews and speeches with Thoma, unfurtunately mostly in German (maybe you can switch on english subtitles). Here are a couple of examples:
- YouTube
While Thoma certainly has some blind spots such as believing the climate change propaganda (at least as of a couple of years ago) I think what he has learned, uncovered and created is quite fascinating. I came across Thoma during a search for possible ways to build houses with little to no need for conventional heating or cooling systems that can heat and cool themselves more or less on their own and without any electricity.
It might sound unbelievable, but Thoma has actually build and continues to build such houses not only in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France but in many places around the globe including Russia/Moscow by the thousands (around 4,000 in total I think). Although it seems that he did only one campus project in Moscow. The houses and building projects range from small buildings up to 5 story "sky scrapers", 11 story buildings, clinics and campuses.
I think a couple of criteria need to be met though that such a house doesn't necessarily need any heating or cooling even in VERY cold climates and prolonged winters, the most important one likely being that you should try to position and/or build the house so that as much of the course of the sun in the sky is covered on the biggest side of the house especially in cold months.
But even if such a house can't be perfectly oriented like that, it can be heated and cooled with incredibly low extra needs/costs. For example, if you would use a wood burning stove (depending how good it is build into the house) it will need extremely little wood. Same if you would use more conventional methods of heating via oil or electricity for example.
Another cool thing is that Thoma has by now managed to build houses pretty much in the same price span as conventional/normal houses cost to built (at least in Germany) and that the main structure will be build in a prefab house fashion just in a couple of days in stark contrast to most conventional houses.
They say that 20-30 percent of the total costs for a house at least in Germany is made up by their work/wood/method and the rest is made up by local normal building costs (such as property prices, labor costs etc.). Which means that in places like France for example the total costs for such a house should be significantly lower than in Germany for example. In most cases (also within Austria and Germany) many Holz100 certificated distributors/builders are building the houses with his concepts and with his inventions. So, anyone that can afford it can build such a house. They also give a whopping 50 years warranty on the house! Less is more seems to be a good principle and seems to be applied in those houses when it comes to heating and cooling quite thoroughly. Another interesting thing: He makes it clear that his patented invention of building walls came to him in a dream at night after a long and difficult period of searching for solutions all over the globe and financial difficulties with his new company: He woke up and tried as fast as he could to write what he saw in the dream down on paper.
The system is also based on a circular economy concepts, meaning that the houses are practically not only build to last as long as possible (hundreds of years at least I think) but also that you can, at least in theory, dismantle everything at some point in the future relatively easily and either burn it as wood, sell the wood for good money or build with the same material a new house somewhere else. Thoma says that things are now actually often deliberately build not last long in a sort of throwaway society fashion, which he finds ridiculous. Thoma houses are meant to be good for future generations too, also in that way:
The houses are practically built without any poisons like glues, insulating material etc. in them and the risk for the creation of mold is pretty much zero even though there are no artificial or electricity based systems in them to get humidity out (the wood handles that naturally as well, including in bathrooms). Remember, the huge asbestos problem that new and "great" building technics have created in the last decades? Thoma has said somewhere that what will come in the future with the stuff that has (and is now) been build into "very good" low energy houses and practically every other normal house will probably make the Asbestos problem look like nothing in comparison in the future. Something I didn't know and sounds scary already: Thoma discovered that the costs of recycling 1 Ton of normal houses today (because of all the toxic stuff in them) already costs companies that do this around 1000€ in Germany! A normal house nowadays weighs on average anywhere between 50-180 Tons. You do the math! Who is going to pay for all of that in the future? I guess future generations.
One of the things that I found especially interesting, is that Thoma builds with moonwood, a very ancient method that is about when and how to cut a tree: in the winter months and only during decreasing moon phases. Also, the best violins in the world have been made out of such wood (and early in Thomas career he also cut trees for violin builders). Many civilizations in the past apparently knew about it and under Caesar for example it was put into law that only such wood should/can be used. And if you violated such laws you were very severely punished, including the death penalty, perhaps not only in Rome.
Below you will find some of the benefits of that kind of wood, all of which have been proven now by science. The ancients were not stupid, for sure! Thoma also (has and) is using a lot of science in his work, not only in regard to wood itself but also in regard to the behaviour of water (I think he might have also worked with people like Pollack). The other good news is that he seems to be pretty successful with his company and that his kids are already trained to continue his work for probably quite some decades ahead.
Erwin also has a rather fascinating life story growing up and at some point working with his grandfather (a master house builder that did things very anciently almost exclusively with his own hands). It also includes death defying free soloing climbs on huge ice walls in the mountains that would make any professional climber nowadays look amateurish in comparison and a encounter with a benedictine monk with whom he climbed in the beginning and who taught him to train not only is body but his mind.
To not make an already long post too long I put a further summary of mine into a quote here:
Unfurtunately most of his work is only available in German and that includes his books and his speeches and Interviews. He is a very good speaker and you will quickly notice that he burns for (and is in love with) what he is doing. The website of his company is the following, available in english and other languages including Russian (although with quite a lot less content compared to the German website): Thoma Holz.
There are a many good interviews and speeches with Thoma, unfurtunately mostly in German (maybe you can switch on english subtitles). Here are a couple of examples:
- YouTube
While Thoma certainly has some blind spots such as believing the climate change propaganda (at least as of a couple of years ago) I think what he has learned, uncovered and created is quite fascinating. I came across Thoma during a search for possible ways to build houses with little to no need for conventional heating or cooling systems that can heat and cool themselves more or less on their own and without any electricity.
It might sound unbelievable, but Thoma has actually build and continues to build such houses not only in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France but in many places around the globe including Russia/Moscow by the thousands (around 4,000 in total I think). Although it seems that he did only one campus project in Moscow. The houses and building projects range from small buildings up to 5 story "sky scrapers", 11 story buildings, clinics and campuses.
I think a couple of criteria need to be met though that such a house doesn't necessarily need any heating or cooling even in VERY cold climates and prolonged winters, the most important one likely being that you should try to position and/or build the house so that as much of the course of the sun in the sky is covered on the biggest side of the house especially in cold months.
But even if such a house can't be perfectly oriented like that, it can be heated and cooled with incredibly low extra needs/costs. For example, if you would use a wood burning stove (depending how good it is build into the house) it will need extremely little wood. Same if you would use more conventional methods of heating via oil or electricity for example.
Another cool thing is that Thoma has by now managed to build houses pretty much in the same price span as conventional/normal houses cost to built (at least in Germany) and that the main structure will be build in a prefab house fashion just in a couple of days in stark contrast to most conventional houses.
They say that 20-30 percent of the total costs for a house at least in Germany is made up by their work/wood/method and the rest is made up by local normal building costs (such as property prices, labor costs etc.). Which means that in places like France for example the total costs for such a house should be significantly lower than in Germany for example. In most cases (also within Austria and Germany) many Holz100 certificated distributors/builders are building the houses with his concepts and with his inventions. So, anyone that can afford it can build such a house. They also give a whopping 50 years warranty on the house! Less is more seems to be a good principle and seems to be applied in those houses when it comes to heating and cooling quite thoroughly. Another interesting thing: He makes it clear that his patented invention of building walls came to him in a dream at night after a long and difficult period of searching for solutions all over the globe and financial difficulties with his new company: He woke up and tried as fast as he could to write what he saw in the dream down on paper.
The system is also based on a circular economy concepts, meaning that the houses are practically not only build to last as long as possible (hundreds of years at least I think) but also that you can, at least in theory, dismantle everything at some point in the future relatively easily and either burn it as wood, sell the wood for good money or build with the same material a new house somewhere else. Thoma says that things are now actually often deliberately build not last long in a sort of throwaway society fashion, which he finds ridiculous. Thoma houses are meant to be good for future generations too, also in that way:
The houses are practically built without any poisons like glues, insulating material etc. in them and the risk for the creation of mold is pretty much zero even though there are no artificial or electricity based systems in them to get humidity out (the wood handles that naturally as well, including in bathrooms). Remember, the huge asbestos problem that new and "great" building technics have created in the last decades? Thoma has said somewhere that what will come in the future with the stuff that has (and is now) been build into "very good" low energy houses and practically every other normal house will probably make the Asbestos problem look like nothing in comparison in the future. Something I didn't know and sounds scary already: Thoma discovered that the costs of recycling 1 Ton of normal houses today (because of all the toxic stuff in them) already costs companies that do this around 1000€ in Germany! A normal house nowadays weighs on average anywhere between 50-180 Tons. You do the math! Who is going to pay for all of that in the future? I guess future generations.
One of the things that I found especially interesting, is that Thoma builds with moonwood, a very ancient method that is about when and how to cut a tree: in the winter months and only during decreasing moon phases. Also, the best violins in the world have been made out of such wood (and early in Thomas career he also cut trees for violin builders). Many civilizations in the past apparently knew about it and under Caesar for example it was put into law that only such wood should/can be used. And if you violated such laws you were very severely punished, including the death penalty, perhaps not only in Rome.
Below you will find some of the benefits of that kind of wood, all of which have been proven now by science. The ancients were not stupid, for sure! Thoma also (has and) is using a lot of science in his work, not only in regard to wood itself but also in regard to the behaviour of water (I think he might have also worked with people like Pollack). The other good news is that he seems to be pretty successful with his company and that his kids are already trained to continue his work for probably quite some decades ahead.
Erwin also has a rather fascinating life story growing up and at some point working with his grandfather (a master house builder that did things very anciently almost exclusively with his own hands). It also includes death defying free soloing climbs on huge ice walls in the mountains that would make any professional climber nowadays look amateurish in comparison and a encounter with a benedictine monk with whom he climbed in the beginning and who taught him to train not only is body but his mind.
To not make an already long post too long I put a further summary of mine into a quote here:
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