You are right, steel framing is quite high in embodied energy. We really had a dilemma there. It’s one of those decisions that had to be made at the time of building. As we say in the show, wood is the better alternative, but because we are in earthquake country, we would easily have used as much wood as a conventional builder to provide the structural support required by our building codes. And we really wanted to infill the full length of the walls with bales for the best insulation. Also, steel was inexpensive at the time. The steel package cost me half of what the wood package would have. Now, however, the prices are quite comparable.
We could have done things differently if we had built a single story house in a less earthquake prone area. Then, we could have built what is called a load bearing straw bale house, in which the bales provide the structural strength and the use of wood is kept to interior walls and roof trusses.
My pocketbook and design sense got the better of my environmental concern on that day. When I do it again, I will try to do it better.
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