A Winter Greenhouse Construction Plan for Northerners - Aquaponic Gardening2024-03-29T08:59:59Zhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/forum/topics/a-winter-greenhouse-construction-plan-for-northerners?commentId=4778851%3AComment%3A572949&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThat sounds great! Love to s…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-30:4778851:Comment:5728812014-07-30T14:27:10.423ZJeremiah Robinsonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/JeremiahRobinson
<p>That sounds great! Love to see pictures as it comes along!</p>
<p>That sounds great! Love to see pictures as it comes along!</p> I never said it would be chea…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-30:4778851:Comment:5730722014-07-30T14:24:03.711ZAquamaplehttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/MarkWrubel
I never said it would be cheap, but it WILL work!
I never said it would be cheap, but it WILL work! I forgot to relay one of my m…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-30:4778851:Comment:5729852014-07-30T14:20:59.367ZAquamaplehttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/MarkWrubel
I forgot to relay one of my most exciting developments! My wife wants a cellar for food storage and a place for me to store all my homemade wine. SO... I think I'll just build it deep undergound and big enough that it can accommodate sump tanks big enough for all the AP expansion on my property! The sump system will be very close to my water supply and my electrical source. Also, the geothermal water conditioning can be installed way over near the cellar instead of under the greenhouse. This…
I forgot to relay one of my most exciting developments! My wife wants a cellar for food storage and a place for me to store all my homemade wine. SO... I think I'll just build it deep undergound and big enough that it can accommodate sump tanks big enough for all the AP expansion on my property! The sump system will be very close to my water supply and my electrical source. Also, the geothermal water conditioning can be installed way over near the cellar instead of under the greenhouse. This could be done way cheaper than an underground bunker with poured walls and a poured ceiling, but since I'm going to build a cellar, I might as well make it multi-purpose and get the best "bang" for my buck!<br />
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So, SHC will actually be subterranean cooling for the summer, not so much for winter heating in the greenhouse. I like the idea of the concrete floors, sloped to drains, dyed or painted black for winter energy absorption, and covered with something like crushed limestone in the warm months. My wife and I are replacing our indoor forced air wood furnace with an outdoor boiler system where I plan to burn sawdust/horse manure logs from our farm (PM me if you are interested, or we can start a discussion about it in a furnace thread). I plan to make the boiler big enough to heat the greenhouse to some extent, since they will be in close proximity. I am also a fan of rocket mass heaters, I don't have plans for one in the greenhouse yet, but maybe someday one would be incorporated. I'm more likely to reverse the SC air flow into the heat exchanger with the boiler water so I'm never heating air cooler than 55°F as opposed to trying to heat <40° greenhouse air... I am also building a very nice waste oil furnace for my shop at this very moment that could potentially be used for supplemental heat in a greenhouse. (These are VERY hot and VERY clean, lookup a gentleman I follow on Youtube called, "Gerry's Waste Oil Burner" if you are interested.)<br />
So my hope is to have my trout water always 55° or so, warm water tanks I have other plans for temperature control. My plan is that the GH will always be at least slightly warmer than the coolest [trout] FT. But my gut tells me with adequate weatherproofing combined with all the other things it will be fairly easy to maintain warmer temperatures ALL winter. Last year when cold weather h…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-30:4778851:Comment:5729772014-07-30T02:55:32.568ZJeff Shttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/JeffSullivan
<p>Last year when cold weather hit I rushed and built an 8x10 GH. I was happy with the results but struggled to keep it warm. This year I am expanding to 14x21 but will be able to reuse the walls. I am anticipating no further growth but will be building in a way that the GH can be expanded if needed. No deep digging to undo if there are changes of any kind. I have a sunken sump now and that will be the hardest item to relocate.<br></br><br></br><cite>Aquamaple said:…</cite></p>
<p>Last year when cold weather hit I rushed and built an 8x10 GH. I was happy with the results but struggled to keep it warm. This year I am expanding to 14x21 but will be able to reuse the walls. I am anticipating no further growth but will be building in a way that the GH can be expanded if needed. No deep digging to undo if there are changes of any kind. I have a sunken sump now and that will be the hardest item to relocate.<br/><br/><cite>Aquamaple said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/a-winter-greenhouse-construction-plan-for-northerners?xg_source=msg_com_forum&id=4778851%3ATopic%3A539158&page=3#4778851Comment573063"><div><div class="xg_user_generated">I'm kind of thinking like Sonja where I plan to do it once. The structure I am planning will be too big to dig it all up a second time.</div>
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</blockquote> I did a bunch of research on…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-30:4778851:Comment:5730672014-07-30T02:41:25.616ZJeremiah Robinsonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/JeremiahRobinson
<p>I did a bunch of research on SCHS for a customer recently. They're gangbusters for cooling, but heating gain is minimal. The real winter advantage is that they heat up the ground earlier in the season, which doesn't do much for aquaponics. When I have time I'm going to make a calculator for how much heat/cooling to expect given your design. Maybe over the winter I'll do it.</p>
<p>Geothermal for water heat would be an interesting idea - haven't seen it before. Beware of geothermal…</p>
<p>I did a bunch of research on SCHS for a customer recently. They're gangbusters for cooling, but heating gain is minimal. The real winter advantage is that they heat up the ground earlier in the season, which doesn't do much for aquaponics. When I have time I'm going to make a calculator for how much heat/cooling to expect given your design. Maybe over the winter I'll do it.</p>
<p>Geothermal for water heat would be an interesting idea - haven't seen it before. Beware of geothermal sellers over-promising. The way efficiency for them is rated (COP) doesn't include pumping power, which can be a big part of their load. They're great, but not as great as they've been made to seem by some.</p> I chatted with our local guy…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-29:4778851:Comment:5730642014-07-29T23:33:44.700ZSonja Martin Younghttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/SonjaMartinYoung
I chatted with our local guy about geothermal in our area. His take is that the systems that he uses would not be able to keep up with the temperature extremes in our area so I would still have to have a conventional heater and he ran some numbers with me and we decided it would not be cost effective. Might be different in a different area.<br />
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I like Jim's idea of using used furniture bubble wrap on the inside for extra insulation. Thought I would check to see what is available here.
I chatted with our local guy about geothermal in our area. His take is that the systems that he uses would not be able to keep up with the temperature extremes in our area so I would still have to have a conventional heater and he ran some numbers with me and we decided it would not be cost effective. Might be different in a different area.<br />
<br />
I like Jim's idea of using used furniture bubble wrap on the inside for extra insulation. Thought I would check to see what is available here. I'm kind of thinking like Son…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-29:4778851:Comment:5730632014-07-29T22:50:11.227ZAquamaplehttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/MarkWrubel
I'm kind of thinking like Sonja where I plan to do it once. The structure I am planning will be too big to dig it all up a second time.
I'm kind of thinking like Sonja where I plan to do it once. The structure I am planning will be too big to dig it all up a second time. Some how all this takes away…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-29:4778851:Comment:5728722014-07-29T20:33:29.254ZJeff Shttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/JeffSullivan
<p>Some how all this takes away the "hobby" aspect of aquaponics. But I'm just as guilty as anyone.I see an idea and I have to try it.</p>
<p>Some how all this takes away the "hobby" aspect of aquaponics. But I'm just as guilty as anyone.I see an idea and I have to try it.</p> I plan on geothermal heating…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-29:4778851:Comment:5730512014-07-29T18:24:59.223ZAquamaplehttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/MarkWrubel
I plan on geothermal heating / cooling for my water, and subterranean heating and cooling for the greenhouse.
I plan on geothermal heating / cooling for my water, and subterranean heating and cooling for the greenhouse. Do you mean geothermal using…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-07-29:4778851:Comment:5728642014-07-29T16:10:12.322ZJeremiah Robinsonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/JeremiahRobinson
<p>Do you mean geothermal using a heat pump, or subterranean heating and cooling using air?</p>
<p>Do you mean geothermal using a heat pump, or subterranean heating and cooling using air?</p>