An Earth Sheltered Greenhouse for Cristian's Earth Sheltered Home

Cristian gives a rundown on the greenhouse he has added to his earth sheltered home below. 

For the full story on this earth sheltered, solar heated home ...

greenhouse

As I promise, here are the pictures of my new green house.

As shown in the picture above, the green house was placed on South side of the deck for good exposure to winter sun . It is half buried, which gives it four advantages:

  1. It will never freeze because the under deck ground is warm (it is part of the insulated umbrella around the house)
  2.  In sunny days (especially in summer) will pump heat under the house.
  3. It doesn't cover the view from my bedroom
  4.  It gets good protection from strong winds

 


Laying out greenhouse frame
Tiles from the deck are excellent for parallel or perpendicular alignment of metal bars welding.  The zinc-coated metal bars were bought from junk yard.
Finally, I have under one meter of scraps Zinc is an good protection in a moist green house climate.

 

Applying the greenhouse skin
The metal framing is erected and completely welded. The frame design was calculated according to polycarbonate sheet dimensions.
In the end, I had less then 0.25sqm scraps of polycarbonate.  The polycarbonate has a long life and a good UV resistance compared to PVC foil.


Greenhouse foundation
The foundation was made from scrap concrete blocks.  Some "J" shape 8mm wire was placed between concrete blocks and welded to metal frame.
Concrete was poured between concrete blocks to fix together the foundation and the frame.

 

 

Greenhouse walkway
A walking alley was bordered with scrap wood boards covered with PVC foil.  Outside the alley, the hole was filled with fermented manure and soil.


Polycarbonate skin complete
The green house has been completely covered with polycarbonate.

Greenhouse door
Polycarbonate was cut around the door and window with  1cm edge for a good seal.

 

Inside the greenhouse
Inside view. Notice a gap on sloped wall bottom . This will be covered in cold nights but opened for ventilation (with the window) on hot days

A couple more pictures of the completed greenhouse:

completed greenhouse   

growing in the greenhouse


Cristian  
April, 2011

 

Gary May 30, 2011