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!

 

[Rob Torcellini]

Finally got around to doing the third video in my series of building the geodesic dome.  This once covers how all the struts are made.  It's filmed in HD so you should be able to expand it to full-screen!  I hope you enjoy it!

 

[Two Jay]

You are the man!   Nice work Rob.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

This is a superb video Rob!  I can see you doing your own TV show someday.... "This Old Greenhouse" maybe...

[Rob Torcellini]

I'm lucky to find the time to do these videos....I have other projects that consume a lot of time.  ;-)   I really enjoy doing them.  I get a ton of hits for the strawberry tower one too.

[Jay Wolf]

Love it!!!  I wish you the best and look forward to see how you are progressing!

[Rob Torcellini]

A quick update on the Geodesic Dome Greenhouse project. The site clearing is nearly done. The hardwoods will be used as firewood. Some of the pines will be cut into lumber while the rest will be ground-up and used as ground cover and erosion control. Next step, stump removal and then the foundation!

Site before clearing trees.

 

Site after clearing the majority of the trees.  (My wife and I are sitting on a huge stump)

 

130 +/- year-old tree. Each tack is 10 years. Where were you in 1880?

[Meg Stout]

Hi Rob,

 

I saw you were going to run vents under your greenhouse both for cooling and for warmth during the winter - I've been intrigued by Rocket Mass Heaters and Solar furnaces, thinking there might be a way to combine the two ideas to keep a greenhouse warm. Were you thinking of a Rocket Mass Heater, or some other kind of furnace?

 

Here are a couple of shortish videos showing the concepts:

 

 

[Rob Torcellini]

Hi Meg,

 

The plan is to to use this for 2 different heating phases.  Just like in my current greenhouse, on warm days, I pull the excess heat that raises to the roof and pump it into the tank water.  With the new greenhouse, I want to pull the heat down and store it in the floor.  Instead of opening the vents and letting the waste heat out, it will get recycled back into the floor for storage.  The biggest drawback with this is I get less fresh air into the building.

 

On the really cold days, I plan on heating the building with a rocket mass heater.  It's going to be a fairly large heater..probably will need an 8" flue.  The wood from the building site will be used to heat it.  Long term, the goal will be to burn waste wood chips from a local tree company that are currently going onto a landfill.  There's also a possibility to use some of the waste corn that comes from our farm and try to burn it....that will take a bit of experimenting!

[Meg Stout]

Excellent - I was thinking the solar furnace could be used to keep the "thermal battery" topped up when you didn't have a fire going. I look forward to hearing how it goes for you, since you keep such accurate records (unlike me).

[Rob Torcellini]

It's been quite awhile since posting any info about the geodesic dome greenhouse. This spring had more rain then usual and the site was too wet to run heavy equipment through. We're hoping to start digging for the footings in next week or so.

I've started to experiment with rocket mass heaters and have had very good luck with running a good clean burn. It will be quite impressive to be able to heat the entire greenhouse without needing electricity to store heat in a thermal mass or run a blower for the burner. More to come!

BTW, if you expand the video and watch in HD, you can get a good view of the burn tunnel...it's sort of cool!

 

[Rob Torcellini]

FINALLY!  The foundation hole should be ready in a couple of days.

 

[Rob Torcellini]

After many delays, we finally got the foundation hole dug for the greenhouse.  Things should start moving along much quicker now!