Susan's Sustainable Ideas Page Two

Susan's Sustainable Ideas
Rural Womyn Zone Home
Sustainable Ag Section

Solar and geothermally heated greenhouse
with "ferris wheel" flats
Increases growing space and decreases heating cost

Click photo for closer view

This is the solar greenhouse we built in 1993. First we dug a pit in the ground, then poured a cement foundation. We built up cement blocks to ground level, then made the walls and roof framework. You can just see the angle of the south and north walls in this picture. Because we live at a latitude of 45 degrees, the angle was calculated to be 65 degrees. Then we modified that just slightly so that we did not have to buy odd sizes of the acrylic used for windows, or buy odd sized plywood for the north roof. The north roof is 12 feet from top to bottom, there are four foot "knee walls" (glass on the south side, wood and siding on the north).

The picture (above left) shows the black locust posts from trees we cut down before we dug the hole that hold the ground away from the door. The entrance to the greenhouse is then below ground level. There is an electric line going in under the foundation, a drain hole in the ground, and no water line! Somehow we did not put water in until afterwards, so actually put it in through the window frame on the north side and covered it with foam insulation.

The picture (above left) also shows the vent and fan just above the door. There is another in the peak on this side, and one on the other side.

All the glass used in the greenhouse was recycled. The two large windows on this end are from a yard sale (I paid $10 each for them), they are double windows (two panes with air in between). The long windows at the top came
from a church in Ohio that was torn down. The double 4 X 5 foot windows on the south side came from another church.

Photo, above right, shows plastic bottles on the floor filled with water for heat storage. The shelf flats are built in a ferris wheel arrangement of my design that increases growing space -- and decreases heating cost -- by at least 3 times.