A straw bale is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used. Straw is the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the nutrient grain or seed has been removed. ... A round baler A baler is a piece of farm machinery that is used to compress a cut, raked, crop (such as hay or straw) into bales and bind the bales with twine. ...

When bales are used to build or insulate buildings, the straw bales are commonly finished with plaster. The plastered walls provide excellent thermal mass, compressive and ductile structural strength, and excellent fire resistance as well as thermal reistance (insulation), far in excess of North American building code. Straw is an abundant agricultural waste product, and requires little energy to bale and transport for construction. For these reasons, strawbale construction is gaining popularity as part of passive solar and other renewable energy projects. Construction on the North Bytown Bridge in Ottawa, Canada. ... This page refers to thermal insulation. ... A thermal mass in the most general term refers to any mass used to absorb and hold heat. ... A building code is a set of laws that specify how buildings should be constructed. ... Passive solar is a broad category of techniques for regulating a buildings indoor air and domestic water temperatures, using climate, site features, architectural elements, and landscape materials. ... // Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat flows. ...

See straw-bale construction.