Episode-45- The “Green” Green House – A Self Sufficient Microclimate
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Today we discuss creating a green house that is designed to be a self sufficient microclimate via the use of alternative energy tactics.
Tune in today to learn about…
- Using a rain catch system in a green house to provide its own irrigation needs
- Creating and automated watering system to make your work load lighter
- Using solar powered fans to cool your green house in the hot times of the year
- 12 Month a year Green House usage
- Using a more conventional roof with “skylights” and the advantages of that
- Using solar attic fans as a self contained cooling system
- Building with expansion in mind
- Learning the basics with a small project for use on a large scale
- Using solar screens to decrease warm weather temps
- Combating climate change (up or down) with a green house
Resources for today’s show
- Solar Screen Material – Not an endorsement up or down for this supplier they just have a good assortment of colors and options.
- Solar Attic Fans – Again not an endorsement up or down for this supplier just a decent assortment of fans to explain what I was talking about.
- Video with a Cool Rain Catching and Irrigation System – Not for a green house but the rain catch and distribution system may give you some great ideas. The rain water system is shown from about 10 minutes to about 18 minutes in if you don’t want to watch the entire video.
- Green House Fan Systems – Again not an endorsement simply provided as a resource to give you some ideas
Great podcast!
Also, look into setting up a passive solar heater like what ‘Mother Earth News’ wrote about. Here’s the link: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/solar_barn_project.htm
Ooops. meant to say ‘Great topic for a podcast’. I’ve not had a chance to listen to it yet.
This was an interesting podcast and did marry many good ideas (I’ve see a couple; but never integrated into a single green house) into one. An extension to this might be (if one were building a green house attached to your residence) to attach the green house to your home, thereby (with proper controls in place) provide some additional moisture in the air in winter as well as heat (from the solar gain in the green house); in summer, the house could be a partial source for cooling air for the green house as well. Just a thought.
@BlackMacX,
Your concept of pulling some of the heat into the house is also one I plan to try. The only problem with that for me at my retreat is the layout of the house in relation to the way the sun moves across the sky.
The southern side of my home which will get the best solar exposure if the Green House is attached to the home is the side of the house with “secondary bedrooms”. I have a one story “split floor plan” where the kitchen sort of seperates the layout.
So the part we actually “live in” is on the lesser exposed side. I still think we can get some winter solar gain but if I built the home myself I would have done things differently. Everything I guess is a trade off.
I have also seen that a “solar room” can cool a home in summer if you let it vent heat away. I don’t “get it” mentally the way I understand solar gain but I will be working on systems that do this as well in the future.