This summer I visited Russ Finch at his Green House in the Snow. He said that for cooling the greenhouse they tried pumping the air into the ground and they tried misters. In the end, he said that neither did all that much to cool the greenhouse, especially in a humid climate. He said the only thing that worked was they put a door on the other side to create a tunnel effect with the wind and then tried to combine it with the plant's natural hydro transpiration.
those of us who work in stressed jobs can add two more things to your "health" list > 1. gardening is a good stress relief routine 2. gardening is a good physical routine for cubical workers like insurance clerks, IT, secretaries, etc.
I really appreciate the knowledge you're sharing. I think we have different definitions of "low budget" though! I built a basic greenhouse with some passive solar elements for around $50 in materials that keeps from freezing, early April to end of October in Calgay as well. I would love to work with you to reach gardeners in the sub $500 budget. I know most of your projects are in the thousands of dollars but my passion is finding solutions available to the average gardener that can buy them and extra 60 days of growing season. In Calgary that's a 66% increase. Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing your insights.
Thanks for your comment. The vast majority of people earn $35-50,000/yr and literally could not spend the thousands these projects are. Your project is alot more realistic, but most average people and small projects don't make consultants money.
Just finished my GH in Sudbury, Ontario, zone 3b for the most part. It’s a 9’x14’ lean-to on my workshop, which has a wood stove and natural gas furnace for backup. I heat the shop anyway, so it seems to take vey little extra energy to warm the GH. Started recording temps on day one… coldest outside was -20°C while inside was 12°C. Heat transfers from shop to GH via patio door and window aided by two fans. So not totally passive, but as you say, it’s an investment… Keep posting… keep teaching! Thank you
Light does not seem to be a problem in your greenhouse. I’ve however seen many that look dim. As a solution I’ve thought about using solar tube to channel additional light into the greenhouse. Such a “tube” could come from the space between the greenhouse transparent material a d the overhang of roof at the top.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Inspired by the greenhouse project to explore building a lean onto the south side of our barn. Was poking around your CZcams videos and website to see if there is an update on the data you planned to collect on the battery as well as the whitepaper. Could you point me to a link with the latest? Many thanks again!
Thank you Rob for all your videos and thermodynamic models. I just built a very small Deep Winter Greenhouse with GAHT. It took me 4 months to build as I did the whole thing completely alone. Just finished and moved our plants inside yesterday. It is amazing!!! Its holding 16C in Ontario. You are the person who motivated me to take on the project. I still have the automation to do as per your ideas in this video. Thank you once again.
The ability to be a fully automated system including humidity control is a lovely feature. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing for busy lives. The garage door is a great design feature. Excellent video thanks
Looks good, like the idea of a ventilated back wall to capture heat and store it underground. How are you going to deal with critters, birds and possibly pets getting trapped inside with that roll up door going up and down on it's own?
Good work Rob. Details are important. No thermal convection under ground. Fluid medium gas/liquid... heat rises. Geo physics fundimentals... thermal CONDUCTION through "earthen" materials. 360 up, down and all around. Hence gravel no good. Moisture, water, per kg per degree over differential, thermal pump, distance determines energy storage capacity. St isidore's farms dried their greenhouse thermal storage out. No moisture. No conduction. Your ICF foundation containment of thermal mass is the way to go. ICF eps foam does have a moiture up take lowering R value if no vapour barrier applied as per manufactur specs. Even 6mil poly is effective, not exposed to UV. I like your calding inside. Metal roofing. keep educating us. Knowledge is good. Cheers.
That's an amazing greenhouse. I guess you could zone it into 2 zones: one for long-growth-season nutrient-dense crops such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squashes, melons and cucumbers, and the other zone for seedlings in the spring, then once the seedlings are planted, you could plant the area with cold-resistant crops such as carrots, celery, parsley, kale, Swiss chard, cabbages, etc. Those cold-resistant crops would probably stop growing in September, but you could harvest them as needed from October to January. Even in the first zone, if you pull everything out in September or October, do you think you could fit in a fast-growing cool-temperature crop such as lettuce?
Impressing! I am an engineer too and thinking of building one in germany as well (50 degrees north). We have very cloudy winter for about 2 months with a solar radiation of about 30-50W/m^2 and 1 or 2 hours of sunlight (200W/m^2) per day but most of the time only frosts at night of -2°C.
I've not really had an issue with the heat in my greenhouse as long as there is ventilation. I grow greens all winter in my by adding a second cover. You just have to pick the right varieties. Your greenhouse is certainly a beauty and one I aspire to build someday.
Awesome. We built a big greenhouse in our backyard last summer out of old windows and recycled wood. Loved it. We plan on building a huge greenhouse in the next few years when we move to the country would love to learn more about where you sourced here in Alberta.
I am very happy with using even my small 35 foot ground cooling heating set up for my citrus in Vancouver. I run solar off grid despite being in powered yard. Great challenge will use compost heating, used bay windows as base.
Thanks for sharing 👍 We're planning to build a new greenhouse so we're happy about all the information that we can find about passive solar greenhouses.
Great video, Rob👍. I am halfway through building a Geothermal Inground Greenhouse west of the Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas area. Ventilation will be an issue during the summertime (if it works at all). All ventilation tubes have been installed 24" below the floor and covered up by 2' of soil. The concrete and rebar reinforced cinderblock structure is in place for 2 of the walls. The next phase will be to build out the upper walls, install single hung windows on the final 2 sides, and start the roof. I am planning out the ventilation system and roofing. Sounds like building out too much ventilation will not be a problem.
Hi Rob! Please give us a tour to your greenhouse. I would love to see your plants inside the greenhouse. I’m in Calgary, Alberta too and I have a greenhouse but small not like yours. I’m interested how you built your greenhouse. Nice video and very informational.
I’m in southern Alberta and wanting to build a greenhouse for all the same reasons you mentioned in this video- congratulations on this design. We have an older garage in the back yard that I think could be converted into a greenhouse like this, with the garage door facing North like you have here. I’m curious if you have any advice about how you built this we could check out further.
Just catching up on Verge videos. Great to see the new PSG in operation. Thank you again for the PSG Design course - this is also our first year with the new PSG we built last fall based on the course. Like you, some aspects are not yet completed but we're getting there. Already we are enjoying the greenhouse for the same reasons you outline.
I have been toying with the idea of using my homes HVAC discharge to heat a small greenhouse in my suburban back yard, a form of cyclical energy use, already paying for the heat for the house, might as well squeeze a bit more out of the air we are otherwise just throwing away. During the winter, we are constantly discharging warm air from our home and pulling in fresh cool air, the air coming out of the house has already been dehumidified (around 30% humidity in the house) so I don't think there would be a significant icing issue. Do you see any problems with this idea? My thoughts were to try and get a 365 days a year greenhouse and I live in Manitoba. Would obviously need to determine the realistic size of the greenhouse based on the mass air flow from the HVAC to see how big you can go. During the summer you could disconnect any piping and just run it as a normal greenhouse and allow the air from the house to just be discharged to atmosphere as it normally would. Or maybe you could keep the air going, helping cool the greenhouse in the summer, as the air is essentially temperature controlled. Thought?
I like your thinking but I would be concerned about the deadly carbon monoxide that the furnace is venting. Have you thought about using a dehumidifier? A natural byproduct of dehumidifiers is clean heat (with no carbon monoxide) I use them in my greenhouse and when full the water is pumped out and goes into a large rain barrel inside the greenhouse.
Please, give your latitude and perhaps the daily hours of bright sunshine . It took me 2/3 of this vid to know you're around Calgary. I'm keen to know your costs re the engineering materials
Hopefully you put a sensor on the garage door on the off chance that it wants to open or close when you, your family, or any equipment might be either close nearby or directly underneath the door. Could save at the very least a major headache or at worst case a life.
I have to wonder how much more efficient the system would run if you were pulling the cooled air out of the ground, Instead of trying to push the less dense air down under ground.
looks great I need something like this ! is there a heat sink behind the black wall ? or is it just the ground ? you could have some quails in that green house as well ...
Are u going to have solar panels for your electric needs..??..making it truly passive😊 I live just across the st Lawrence river in Clayton NY....we dont have an exceptionally long growing season either.
Curious to know why did you choose the garage door to release heat as opposed to constructing an automated shade cover on the one side? I was thinking the shade cover would not cool it fast enough and the door was needed to bring in air based on your design?
Eventually we would like to have an automated shade cover that goes over the glazing, that'd be ideal! The garage door has perks of both ventilation AND provides ease of getting soil/mulch/materials in/out of the greenhouse.
In regards to the video creation, what are you using for a remote mic? and how are you recording audio? I see your device clipped to your pocket. Just wondering what it is and if you have a link to the product somewhere?
How could u add mushrooms to this system to add free CO2, also could you also hear the greenhouse by having a static compost pile behind the black wall?
technology is tempting to implement in the green house, whoever...that fail u will loose all the plants...the fact that we humans must MUST be in contact with the plants daily...they need that and we need that...God did not make lazy gardening..and there is a reason for that.
This summer I visited Russ Finch at his Green House in the Snow. He said that for cooling the greenhouse they tried pumping the air into the ground and they tried misters. In the end, he said that neither did all that much to cool the greenhouse, especially in a humid climate. He said the only thing that worked was they put a door on the other side to create a tunnel effect with the wind and then tried to combine it with the plant's natural hydro transpiration.
Thank you for sharing. Russ's greenhouse is amazing.
Wow great info
those of us who work in stressed jobs can add two more things to your "health" list >
1. gardening is a good stress relief routine
2. gardening is a good physical routine for cubical workers like insurance clerks, IT, secretaries, etc.
I really appreciate the knowledge you're sharing. I think we have different definitions of "low budget" though! I built a basic greenhouse with some passive solar elements for around $50 in materials that keeps from freezing, early April to end of October in Calgay as well. I would love to work with you to reach gardeners in the sub $500 budget. I know most of your projects are in the thousands of dollars but my passion is finding solutions available to the average gardener that can buy them and extra 60 days of growing season. In Calgary that's a 66% increase. Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing your insights.
Thanks for your comment. The vast majority of people earn $35-50,000/yr and literally could not spend the thousands these projects are. Your project is alot more realistic, but most average people and small projects don't make consultants money.
Just finished my GH in Sudbury, Ontario, zone 3b for the most part. It’s a 9’x14’ lean-to on my workshop, which has a wood stove and natural gas furnace for backup. I heat the shop anyway, so it seems to take vey little extra energy to warm the GH. Started recording temps on day one… coldest outside was -20°C while inside was 12°C.
Heat transfers from shop to GH via patio door and window aided by two fans. So not totally passive, but as you say, it’s an investment…
Keep posting… keep teaching! Thank you
Godspeed. Make videos. Post, it would help others materialize their dream of building a GH.
Light does not seem to be a problem in your greenhouse.
I’ve however seen many that look dim.
As a solution I’ve thought about using solar tube to channel additional light into the greenhouse.
Such a “tube” could come from the space between the greenhouse transparent material a d the overhang of roof at the top.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Inspired by the greenhouse project to explore building a lean onto the south side of our barn. Was poking around your CZcams videos and website to see if there is an update on the data you planned to collect on the battery as well as the whitepaper. Could you point me to a link with the latest? Many thanks again!
Thank you Rob for all your videos and thermodynamic models. I just built a very small Deep Winter Greenhouse with GAHT. It took me 4 months to build as I did the whole thing completely alone. Just finished and moved our plants inside yesterday. It is amazing!!! Its holding 16C in Ontario.
You are the person who motivated me to take on the project. I still have the automation to do as per your ideas in this video. Thank you once again.
The ability to be a fully automated system including humidity control is a lovely feature. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing for busy lives. The garage door is a great design feature. Excellent video thanks
Looks good, like the idea of a ventilated back wall to capture heat and store it underground. How are you going to deal with critters, birds and possibly pets getting trapped inside with that roll up door going up and down on it's own?
Good work Rob.
Details are important. No thermal convection under ground. Fluid medium gas/liquid... heat rises. Geo physics fundimentals... thermal CONDUCTION through "earthen" materials. 360 up, down and all around. Hence gravel no good. Moisture, water, per kg per degree over differential, thermal pump, distance determines energy storage capacity. St isidore's farms dried their greenhouse thermal storage out. No moisture. No conduction. Your ICF foundation containment of thermal mass is the way to go. ICF eps foam does have a moiture up take lowering R value if no vapour barrier applied as per manufactur specs. Even 6mil poly is effective, not exposed to UV. I like your calding inside. Metal roofing. keep educating us. Knowledge is good. Cheers.
That's an amazing greenhouse. I guess you could zone it into 2 zones: one for long-growth-season nutrient-dense crops such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squashes, melons and cucumbers, and the other zone for seedlings in the spring, then once the seedlings are planted, you could plant the area with cold-resistant crops such as carrots, celery, parsley, kale, Swiss chard, cabbages, etc. Those cold-resistant crops would probably stop growing in September, but you could harvest them as needed from October to January. Even in the first zone, if you pull everything out in September or October, do you think you could fit in a fast-growing cool-temperature crop such as lettuce?
Impressing! I am an engineer too and thinking of building one in germany as well (50 degrees north). We have very cloudy winter for about 2 months with a solar radiation of about 30-50W/m^2 and 1 or 2 hours of sunlight (200W/m^2) per day but most of the time only frosts at night of -2°C.
I've not really had an issue with the heat in my greenhouse as long as there is ventilation. I grow greens all winter in my by adding a second cover. You just have to pick the right varieties. Your greenhouse is certainly a beauty and one I aspire to build someday.
In Alberta the amount of sunlight is also an issue
false@@happyhobbit8450
Almost at the point of getting one built Rob! Looks amazing!
Awesome. We built a big greenhouse in our backyard last summer out of old windows and recycled wood. Loved it. We plan on building a huge greenhouse in the next few years when we move to the country would love to learn more about where you sourced here in Alberta.
I am very happy with using even my small 35 foot ground cooling heating set up for my citrus in Vancouver. I run solar off grid despite being in powered yard. Great challenge will use compost heating, used bay windows as base.
Thanks for sharing 👍 We're planning to build a new greenhouse so we're happy about all the information that we can find about passive solar greenhouses.
Interesting. I always assumed that for really cold weather you want to go the sunken ground route.
Jealous... love it
Great video, Rob👍. I am halfway through building a Geothermal Inground Greenhouse west of the Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas area. Ventilation will be an issue during the summertime (if it works at all). All ventilation tubes have been installed 24" below the floor and covered up by 2' of soil. The concrete and rebar reinforced cinderblock structure is in place for 2 of the walls. The next phase will be to build out the upper walls, install single hung windows on the final 2 sides, and start the roof. I am planning out the ventilation system and roofing. Sounds like building out too much ventilation will not be a problem.
I watched Arkopia in Canada . Built a passive solar for year round growing. He had 3 layers of polycarbonate. Check his ideas
Hi Rob! Please give us a tour to your greenhouse. I would love to see your plants inside the greenhouse. I’m in Calgary, Alberta too and I have a greenhouse but small not like yours. I’m interested how you built your greenhouse. Nice video and very informational.
I’m in southern Alberta and wanting to build a greenhouse for all the same reasons you mentioned in this video- congratulations on this design. We have an older garage in the back yard that I think could be converted into a greenhouse like this, with the garage door facing North like you have here. I’m curious if you have any advice about how you built this we could check out further.
Amazing video- so inspiring thank you
Cranking abundance! Awesome set up.
Some serious thermo dynamics going on with the double vest lol.
Just catching up on Verge videos. Great to see the new PSG in operation. Thank you again for the PSG Design course - this is also our first year with the new PSG we built last fall based on the course. Like you, some aspects are not yet completed but we're getting there. Already we are enjoying the greenhouse for the same reasons you outline.
Have you tried evaporative cooking on the exterior? Interested in this concept, like making the building sweat
I live in saskatchewan. I can't believe that you can get that warm this late in the year. Do you have any other information or design details
Rob, what books do you recommend that cover soil nutrition deficiencies?
x by 200,000 and you have a small city in a green house. Negating Canadian winters. Increase the humidity and you have subtropics.
Hello. Do you use such a parameter as VPD for your plants? i've heard it is very handy stuff to controll
Awesome project! I'm building something similar in south america. Can't wait to grow my broccoli in there.
I have been toying with the idea of using my homes HVAC discharge to heat a small greenhouse in my suburban back yard, a form of cyclical energy use, already paying for the heat for the house, might as well squeeze a bit more out of the air we are otherwise just throwing away. During the winter, we are constantly discharging warm air from our home and pulling in fresh cool air, the air coming out of the house has already been dehumidified (around 30% humidity in the house) so I don't think there would be a significant icing issue. Do you see any problems with this idea? My thoughts were to try and get a 365 days a year greenhouse and I live in Manitoba. Would obviously need to determine the realistic size of the greenhouse based on the mass air flow from the HVAC to see how big you can go.
During the summer you could disconnect any piping and just run it as a normal greenhouse and allow the air from the house to just be discharged to atmosphere as it normally would. Or maybe you could keep the air going, helping cool the greenhouse in the summer, as the air is essentially temperature controlled.
Thought?
I like your thinking but I would be concerned about the deadly carbon monoxide that the furnace is venting. Have you thought about using a dehumidifier? A natural byproduct of dehumidifiers is clean heat (with no carbon monoxide) I use them in my greenhouse and when full the water is pumped out and goes into a large rain barrel inside the greenhouse.
Please, give your latitude and perhaps the daily hours of bright sunshine . It took me 2/3 of this vid to know you're around Calgary. I'm keen to know your costs re the engineering materials
Given you’re in Alberta and you’re sucking air from underground, have you done any radon measurements? I would love to know if this has an affect.
I don’t think he’s sucking air from underground, rather he’s using the temperature of the underground soil to modify the greenhouse temperature.
@@garthwunsch the pipe has holes in it to capture humidity, so any radon would be making it in…
Super informative. Thanks!
Hopefully you put a sensor on the garage door on the off chance that it wants to open or close when you, your family, or any equipment might be either close nearby or directly underneath the door. Could save at the very least a major headache or at worst case a life.
I have to wonder how much more efficient the system would run if you were pulling the cooled air out of the ground, Instead of trying to push the less dense air down under ground.
Judging climate productivity by drinking a beer... I'm here for it. Great video!
looks great I need something like this ! is there a heat sink behind the black wall ? or is it just the ground ? you could have some quails in that green house as well ...
Check out our past video called "Free greenhouse heat-"... where we detail the solar wall
Did you consider an earth-sheltered greenhouse when you were evaluating the best designs for your space?
Excellent
Are u going to have solar panels for your electric needs..??..making it truly passive😊 I live just across the st Lawrence river in Clayton NY....we dont have an exceptionally long growing season either.
Yes our existing solar array will tie into the greenhouse!
Curious to know why did you choose the garage door to release heat as opposed to constructing an automated shade cover on the one side? I was thinking the shade cover would not cool it fast enough and the door was needed to bring in air based on your design?
Eventually we would like to have an automated shade cover that goes over the glazing, that'd be ideal! The garage door has perks of both ventilation AND provides ease of getting soil/mulch/materials in/out of the greenhouse.
What are the dimensions of the greenhouse and roof angle?
In regards to the video creation, what are you using for a remote mic? and how are you recording audio? I see your device clipped to your pocket. Just wondering what it is and if you have a link to the product somewhere?
Inspired!
Great video
Have you looked into an insulating blanket like the Chinese green houses do?
I need an answer to that as well.
Fantastic!
well said!
So, your thermal mass is the garden beds themselves?
Awesome
How could u add mushrooms to this system to add free CO2, also could you also hear the greenhouse by having a static compost pile behind the black wall?
Is the thermal wall material just black soffit or something made for the purpose?
It is a custom designed solar air collector. Check out some of our recent videos on the greenhouse to learn more about it
I am wanting to learn more about the black wall as well
Found the video on the wall 👍 czcams.com/video/AVCKR0sOBHM/video.html
Great content Rob! What automation system are you using??
Does the earth battery need to go under the greenhouse? Can you build one next to it?
How has it been through the winters?
Sup man 👍🏾
What is the roof material?
Polycarbonate
So what I learned is you can drink a beer in short sleeves every night in your greenhouse. Well done.
technology is tempting to implement in the green house, whoever...that fail u will loose all the plants...the fact that we humans must MUST be in contact with the plants daily...they need that and we need that...God did not make lazy gardening..and there is a reason for that.
felels more like a passive aggressive green house
Injecting humdity is probably not a good idea... Otherwise good job!
This was 2 years ago. I wonder what the results were. Did the system keep the GH above zero all the way Jan 15th?