Rob's Geodesic Dome Greenhouse

[Rob Torcellini]

Hi Everyone! We're Expanding! We are pleased to announce that we have just received the necessary permits to build a new greenhouse. This 1200 square foot, state-of-the-art building will utilize some of our latest technology to enhance the building’s energy conservation, as well as monitor and control an aquaponics growing system. The greenhouse will be used for our research and development, and it will become the focal point of the farm as a visitor center. Construction is scheduled to start this spring and we are eagerly waiting for the ground to thaw.

This video is the first part of a series I'll produce over the next year or so. I hope you enjoy the adventure!

 

[Nate Storey]

Hi Steve,

No, no Cord and Penn Parmenter designs.  We're going to a basic quonsit greenhouse with a few modifications to facilitate tower production.  We've bought the structure- now we're scouting locations.  I'll post final designs and pictures of the build as soon as I have them!

I agree with you.  Rob does a great job- I too wonder where he gets the time. . . .

Nate

Steve Perreault said:

Nate - Rob is doing an awesome job with the professional and entertaining videos he produces isn't he? It blows my mind to think of all the hours he puts in to create the videos in addition to the time of doing the GH itself and.... a full time job. It must be all the Snapple he drinks or whatever he puts in it .

Are you doing a "Cord and Penn Parmenter" style greenhouse? Please share your design. I don't know if I can get out to Laramie to help you. But now that Rob is going to charge me for helping hi... Please let me know.

[Rob Torcellini]

Here's the next teaser video on the dome project.  All is going well.  I'm still scrambling to get the building enclosed before winter set in.  It's getting challenging working in this weather...everything is frozen in the morning, then barely thaws during the day, making it wet and slippery.

[Meg Stout]

So cool!

[Rob Torcellini]

One of the nice things about having the dome enclosed is that I can work in there at night without freezing in the wind! Still no heat, but we're getting closer!

[Rob Torcellini]

Here’s the latest in the dome greenhouse series showing the polycarbonate installation.  It’s nice having it enclosed and not working out of the wind.  It’s still cold, but the heating system is next on the list!

[Steve Perreault]

Rob - Covering the dome is a major milestone that has to be a near religious experience for you. Thanks for sharing it with us!

The shot of a lighted dome at night is particularly moving.  I'm guessing that you'll be moving the Christmas tree into the dome so that you can get some work done and spend time with the family this Holiday Season. Are you going to add music too? If not, maybe the neighbors will come and sing carols while you work, Just make sure you get the chimney operational for St Nick!

[Rob Torcellini]

I'm not sure Santa would like to crawl down the rocket mass heater chimney...and if he did, he probably wouldn't enjoy the 1500 degree inferno on the receiving end!  The "boss" has already instructed me that I am not allowed to work on it this weekend, but I can give tours to the family members! 

[Rob Torcellini]

Today I finished building and fired up the rocket mass heater for the geodesic dome. Ironically, it's January and we're having record breaking warm temperatures in the 50's but I couldn't resist and started it up. I will do a full video about the construction in the future, but wanted to share a few pictures of it. This heater is a bit different than some you may see. I wanted to be sure there was enough drafting in the chimney so I doubled up the barrels.

The entire burn tunnel is buried under the floor. It took a little while to get the drafting to start. It didn't help that the internal chimney wasn't insulated yet (missing some parts for it), but once the system got warmed up, it turned into a raging inferno.

A picture without the flash shows how well the fuel is burning in the tunnel.

I ran out of sand so I wasn't able to completely bury the horizontal exhaust. It was quite hot to the touch, but as you moved down the pipe, I could hold my hand against the duct and it was slightly warm.  It was quite funny to see the sand around the duct drying out so quickly. It will be interesting to study the temperatures along the system in the future!

[Meg Stout]

Cool! In a week or so I should have some video of the little rocket mass heater I've got, though I haven't quite gotten to the stage of firing it up for the greenhouse.

[Rob Torcellini]

I can't wait to see it!   Don't worry when you see everything burning off the conduit!  These things get HOT!

[Meg Stout]

As for measuring how warm/hot things get, I found a magnetic temperature gauge for ~$11 at Lowes, in the area where they sell black chimney pipe. I also found an IR(?) temperature gun at HomeDepot for ~$20 on sale a week or so ago, alas it has gone AWOL in the Christmas clean up... I'm wary of the zinc burn-off, so am primarily going with black pipe near the heater itself. Here's hoping I don't have to replace the conduit running through the cinderblocks, since moving all that is more than I feel like doing.

Rob Torcellini said:

I can't wait to see it!   Don't worry when you see everything burning off the conduit!  These things get HOT!

[Rob Torcellini]

even with the black stove pipe, the high temperature paint will probably burn off.  The chimney area of the heater wil get to around 1500 degrees so not much will survive.  I burned my system for about 2 hours and I burned off most of my stuff.  I need to get a laser reader sometime...but I think they only go to 500-600 or so.

At some point I'm going to go hi tech and and install some real high-temperature sensors and monitor it with my data logger system.  It should be wild!