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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] growing oranges in Nebraska: the Pit Greenhouse link

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  • From: mtncats <mtncats@yahoo.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] growing oranges in Nebraska: the Pit Greenhouse link
  • Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:43:58 -0800 (PST)

Bobby, you're definitely headed in the right direction.  I'll reread that site, it's been awhile.

Passively heating a greenhouse with annual heat storage makes perfect sense.  That's what keeps our house comfortable year around.  Mounding dirt worked on flat-as-a-pancake land, as I saw in Saginaw, Mich.

The trade-off is going to be insolation, heat loss, and enough mass to prevent over-heating.  Not difficult to manage, as we do (residentially) on another forum. 

Passive annual heat storage (PAHS) is beyond simple earth-sheltering, and works considerably better.  Very simple concept: store excess summer heat for winter usage.  Which is also what comprises the cooling system.  Similar system worked as well in Missoula, Mont. with 8125 heating degree-days as our 4166 heating degree-days.

How many heating and cooling degree-days do you have there?  Excavation/burial costs are not at all excessive.  Probably better to take this off-list if you're interested in specifics.

Tom (in central Va)

Bobby G <bobbyg53211@yahoo.com> wrote:
http://www.earthtoys.com/emagazine.php?issue_number=03.08.01&article=finch

While growing oranges in Nebraska is a bit more of a
novelty than this list is all about, it does show the
value of this type of greenhouse design.

i am thinking that the earth-sheltered greenhouse
would be definitely among the first-year projects our
land co-op would undertake. not to grow oranges in
Wisconsin, but because of the huge advantage in
season-extending combined with the intensive
mini-agriculture approach.

almost all the greenhouses in our area are the
above-ground structures that gobble energy like crazy.
the goal i have in mind would be a greenhouse that
allows for (almost) year-round growing PLUS only
"sips" energy.

what i'm thinking is, it should be dug down into the
earth quite a ways, with only the SSE, S, and SSW
sides exposed to the sun. the trench system for
geo-thermal heat-pumping is a great feature, but i
fear it would add enormously to the costs of such a
greenhouse. the idea is to start netting profit from
use of a greenhouse almost right from the beginning,
not to invest huge amounts in sunk costs, literally.

if there is no hillside on the land we end up
acquiring, the second notion i've had is to use the
excavation dirt from a pond which is excavated, to
create an artificial "hill" to shelter the
earth-sheltered buildings.

am i thinking in the right direction here? i'll
probably keep drifting in these directions unless
y'all knock me on the head by showing me where my
thinking is daft...

bobby g



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