Experiences with straw bale house?

As a counterargument, I can currently only present what I know: You don't just go to any random farmer and get some straw bales that were made for livestock and use them in construction. There are certain regulations regarding how the straw bales must be processed. Experienced architects/carpenters know these and probably also know farmers who meet these requirements. If not, you can look for a farmer who can comply with these regulations. And if everything is handled according to these regulations, there is no rotten, moldy core. It is known from the start that more care has to be taken here since the straw is NOT for livestock.

That is how I know it so far from everything I have read.

Well, the question is rather, what speaks in favor of it? Here I only see the ecological point. It should also be noted that the insulation or the wall structure is only one (although a bigger) part of a house’s ecological balance. Accept risks and disadvantages for that? I would NOT do that.

That's how I know it so far from everything I've read.

For example, if I look at the FASBA website, the straw bale house is a total rarity, for which there aren't really experts around every corner (both planners and suitable craftsmen who build with straw and/or clay). Ecologically (at least the small part "insulation" in house construction) it may be, but to me it's too specialized. I'd rather go monolithic with stones.

Hi, I have been living in a straw bale house myself for 4 years. I designed this house together with my wife and built it within a year myself with 2 friends (except for windows, flat roof, water and sewage, and electricity). Mold, mice, and other pests as well as fire protection are absolutely not an issue in a straw bale house. With our house, we achieved an efficiency value and KfW 40+ standard and installed no other heating in the entire building except for a water-bearing stove. The heating costs amount to around 250 to a maximum of 300 € per year. From mid-March, the stove remains off about 80% of the time and is only fired up again in mid/end of October. During this time, we burn about 3.5-4 m³ of beech wood to heat the house and 1000 liters of water in the buffer storage. In the other months, we heat the water exclusively with photovoltaic electricity. The interior of the house is plastered with clay and lime plaster. On the outside, the straw bales are covered with 6 cm thick wood fiber boards and 2.5 cm lime plaster or larch cladding. The room and living climate in a straw bale house is almost unparalleled and far ahead of prefabricated houses or other conventional building materials; it does not smell like straw or anything else. Provided it is properly built and moisture has no chance to penetrate the straw, but the same problem exists with insulation made of rock wool. The construction costs for our house were about 1200 €/m² including 1600 m² of land. The FASBA is a great starting point to get quite a lot of information. There is also a wonderful DVD available for purchase on the internet called Stroh im Kopf

That really reads like a beautiful fairy tale.

a fairy tale is one that always has to go with the flow. Our master carpenter is currently planning his own house and here, for example, clay-plastered walls. Certainly also an exotic, although not as much as a straw bale house (a topic we also briefly dealt with (as an option)). These are not all dreamers or crazies who plan and implement such things. These are doers! "Keep going like this" ultimately leaves a sad stain, nothing for (our) children.