Solar Greenhouse during our Snowy Winter

This is our solar greenhouse in a snowy winter in Oregon (the dry side of Oregon). I took this video about 10 minutes ago (December 2nd) during the middle of a long snowy day.

We wanted to test out a solar greenhouse for our climate with the hopes of building a larger version of this greenhouse sometime in the next few years. We did extensive research and decided upon this basic design with a few modifications: http://aes.missouri.edu/swcenter/research/Solar-heated%20greenhouse.pdf

We've had this greenhouse up and running since this spring (2010). I grew a variety of fruits and vegetables this summer and what struck me the most was how HOT it gets in there during the summer. It absolutely cooked the leafy greens... but warmer weather crops did really well. We actually got a corn crop in the greenhouse, as well as tons of cucumbers, and even a few melons which is unheard of for our climate. We get extremely cold winters (well below 0), and really hot summers (100's during the summer).

I just threw some lettuce seeds and pea seeds in there this fall to see if it would grow and it's actually doing really well. It will be fun to go pick peas in January =)

We plan on putting a wall of black barrels filled with water against the back wall to absorb heat during the day and release it at night. We also have a few other things in store for thermal mass and other non-energy entensive ways to heat the greenhouse that I can talk about more if we ever get them done. For now I just plugged in a couple heaters in case the greenhouse ever gets below 32 at night. They rarely, if ever, turn on.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Solar
• Greenhouse
• winter
• freezing
• ice
• cold
• green
• house
• lettuce
• technology
• growing
• sun
• solar
• heated
• passive
• back
• yard
• sustainable
• food
• garden
• raised
• bed

[kricotas]

really nice!

did u did a video from the begining of building your green house?

[StriderGTS]

@kricotas No sadly, but it would have been interesting. If you have any questions though feel free to ask!

[NewEnglandgardening]

Hi, Great greenhouse. Is that on a concrete slab or do you have cinderblock foundation walls?

[StriderGTS]

@NewEnglandgardening Concrete Slab =)

[StriderGTS]

@Living4fishing Yea I found some chart online that listed the R values of all of the different materials people use and decided that twinwall polycarbonate had a good R value but was still affordable. Honestly though I almost think this works "too well" if possible, it just gets SO hot in there on sunny days. I probably just need to get a shade cloth up in the summer but haven't done it yet. During the summer my fan is running all day and barely keeps up.

[Living4fishing]

@StriderGTS ok thanks , i live in CT an want to build a lean to greannhouse an use it all year round ,, its hard to find info on cold weather houses .. So the poly keeps heat pretty good then

[StriderGTS]

@Living4fishing Twinwall Polycarbonate =)

[Living4fishing]

is that glass or polcarbonate sheets ?

[StriderGTS]

@NewEnglandgardening

Thanks!

It has wood framed walls on a concrete foundation. The floor is gravel and nothing grows in the ground in this greenhouse... only in pots and 2 big raised beds. In retrospect I probably would have done a number of things a bit differently but overall I think it works pretty well... especially in the dead of winter. We are definitely learning a lot! It's packed with stuff at the moment so I'll have to do another video sometime.

[StriderGTS]

@ve3tru I'm planning on doing some Aquaponics in the future, I haven't looked into hydroponics nearly as much because the idea of growing fish as well as greens really appeals to me.