Lowtech Graph lists low-tech options for every need of a home. Here you can compare them, find tutorials to build them, and link them together into a circular system. Why low-tech?

Heat-loss prevention (insulation)

Slows CONDUCTION through the solid assembly. The test: it still works in a perfectly airtight house, because it acts on heat moving through material, not on air moving through gaps. Measured in R-value or U-value. A row belongs here when raising thermal resistance is its primary job, even where the installation also tightens the assembly: dense-packed cellulose does both, and sits here because the resistance is the point and the tightness is a side effect of one installation method.

Ranked by thermal resistance per unit thickness (lambda, W/m.K). Vacuum panels are the ceiling; bio-based boards sit in the middle; loose earth/straw give less R per thickness.

Solutions

• Wood wool insulation board: Rigid or semi-rigid boards made of wood fibres bound with a mineral binder, fixed to walls, roofs or floors. The fibres trap still air, which slows heat escapin
• Straw or hay-based insulation blocks: Insulation made of compressed straw or hay, in panels or whole bales, fitted into walls or roofs. The packed stems hold still air that slows heat loss. Straw is
• Sheep's wool insulation: Rolls or mats of sheep’s wool placed between joists and studs, like other insulation. The crimped fibres trap air to slow heat loss, and wool can take up moistu
• Hemp-lime (hempcrete) wall infill: A mix of chopped hemp stalk and lime, packed or sprayed around a timber frame to make the wall. As it sets it forms a light, solid infill that both insulates an
• Cellulose (blown-in) insulation: Shredded recycled paper blown into walls, floors and lofts through small holes. It fills every corner around pipes and framing, and packed tightly it also stops
• Cork insulation: Boards made from cork, the bark of the cork oak, which regrows after harvesting. The cork is full of tiny air cells that slow heat loss. It does not rot and pes
• Light straw-clay infill (torchis leger): Loose straw coated in liquid clay and packed into a timber frame to make the wall. The straw insulates and the clay binds it, holds a little heat and lets moist
• Compressed hemp block (dry-molded, distinct from cast hempcrete): Blocks made of chopped hemp stalk and lime, pressed into shape and dried in the air, then laid like bricks between the posts of a timber frame. They insulate we
• Vacuum insulated panel (VIP): A thin, factory-sealed panel with the air sucked out of its core. With almost no air inside, heat can barely cross it, so it insulates many times better than or
• Mycelium (fungal) insulation panel: Insulation panels grown from mushroom roots: oyster mushroom threads are grown through cardboard in a mould, then baked to stop them growing. The threads bind t
• Lime-hemp (chaux-chanvre) insulating render: A thick render of lime mixed with chopped hemp stalk, applied to old masonry walls inside or out. It adds insulation while letting the wall breathe. Old walls f