The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse: How to Design and Build a Net-Zero Energy Greenhouse

by Lindsey Schiller, Marc Plinke (With)

Overview

Build your own passive solar greenhouse for year-round food production in any climate

The Year-round Solar Greenhouse is the one-stop guide to designing and building greenhouses that harness and store energy from the sun to create naturally heated, lush growing environments even in the depths of winter, covering principles of solar greenhouse design and siting, glazing material properties and selection, controlling heat loss, ventilation, and construction methods. Additionally, an in-depth section covers sustainable ways of heating the greenhouse without fossil fuels, including using thermal mass and storing heat underground with a ground to air heat exchanger.

Variations include attached solar greenhouses, earth sheltered greenhouses, plus integrating hydroponics and aquaponics. More than a dozen case studies from across North America provide inspiration and demonstrate specific challenges and solutions for growing year-round in any climate.

Fresh, local nutrient-dense fruits vegetables are hard to find in winter in cold climates. Growing warm-weather crops like tomatoes, bananas, avocados, and other perennials is nearly impossible using conventional structures. The solution for millions of backyard and small-scale commercial growers is self-heating solar greenhouses.

Grow your own food, anytime, anywhere using the power of the sun!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781550926187
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Lindsey Schiller studied conventional greenhouse design and management at the University of Arizona's Controlled Environmental Agriculture Center before delving deeply into solar greenhouse design. With co-author Marc Plinke, she founded Ceres Greenhouse Solutions to research, design and build energy-efficient year-round greenhouses. Lindsey has designed, toured and helped build hundreds of energy-efficient greenhouses spanning small residential structures to acre-size commercial facilities.

Marc Plinke , an inventor-innovator with a PhD in engineering, started his career as a chemical and process engineer working for Gore Technologies. He later retrofitted his family's 1950's Boulder, CO ranch home into a net-zero-energy home, spurring a second career in green building design. Marc has spent the past decade applying his expertise in green building and engineering mindset to building better greenhouses, with the intention of enabling people to grow their own food sustainably, year-round.

Lindsey Schiller studied conventional greenhouse design and management at the University of Arizona's Controlled Environmental Agriculture Center before delving deeply into solar greenhouse design. With co-author Marc Plinke, she founded Ceres Greenhouse Solutions to research, design and build energy-efficient year-round greenhouses. Lindsey lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Marc Plinke, an inventor-innovator with a PhD in engineering, started his career as a chemical and process engineer working for Gore Technologies. Marc has spent the past decade applying his expertise in green building and engineering mindset to building better greenhouses, with the intention of enabling people to grow their own food sustainably, year-round. Marc lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section I: The Big Picture
1. What Is a Solar Greenhouse?
2. Growing Indoors: History and Future Trends
3. Planning for the Greenhouse

Section II: Designing and Building a Solar Greenhouse
4. Siting and Orientation
5. Controlling Light and Heat Gain: Glazing
6. Controlling Heat Loss: Insulation
7. Ventilation
8. Greenhouse Geometries
9. Greenhouse Construction Basics
10. Attached Greenhouses
11. Earth-sheltered Greenhouses

Section III: Heating and Cooling Methods
12. Passive Thermal Mass
13. Using the Earth for Heat Storage
14. Solar Hot Water
15. Rocket Mass Stoves and Compost Heaters
16. Powering the Greenhouse

Section IV: Growing in the Greenhouse
17. Creating the Greenhouse Environment
18. Aquaponics and Hydroponics

Appendix 1: Temperature Ranges of Common Greenhouse Crops
Appendix 2: Optimizing Glazing Angles
Appendix 3: Supplemental Lighting

Index
About the Authors
A Note About the Publisher

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Particularly for aquaponics growers, solar greenhouse design is a nobrainer. Schiller and Plinke have created a practical, easy to read guide that enables anyone to design and build their own sustainable, yearround greenhouse. I highly recommend it for aquaponic growers, and any gardener looking to extend their season."
— Sylvia Bernstein, author, Aquaponic Gardening

"Schiller's book is an important resource that will help farmers and greenhouse operators leverage innovation for sustainable and profitable food production. I believe that agricultural innovation for economic and ecological sustainability is the most important opportunity facing humanity, and this book should be part of your tool kit."
— Gaelan Brown, author, The Compost-Powered Water Heater

"Year-round food production in the emerging post carbon society will require solar greenhouses at many scales. Whether an attached home greenhouse or large commercial bioshelter, successful long term food production in these bio-structures requires artful design, careful planning, quality construction and carefully integrated systems of light, heat, ventilation and well managed growing spaces. Lindsey Schiller and Marc Plinke have provided an essential tool to ensure success in all these areas. This book is extensively researched, written with personal experience and full of essential facts and figures rendered simple and accessible."
— Darrell E. Frey, author, The Bioshelter Market Garden

"The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse is an invaluable primer for anyone looking to grow their own food year-round without fossil fuels. The science and methods are well explained, meticulously documented, and easy to understand. A great resource."
— Dan Chiras, author, Power from the Sun, Chinese Greenhouses, and The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy

"Well researched and thorough, it's a contribution of her effort to convey to us all the information on the subject. The author is educated and writes in a manner easily understood, and to the point. She has done us all a favor with this book. Each chapter ends with a summary "takeaways" that gives extra reading references, books, CD's etc. covering all related topics for whatever your particular need may be. What you need to learn about solar green houses you WILL find by starting with this book."
— Leslie Jackson, co-author, Rocket Mass Heaters