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Sunspaces and Solar Greenhouses

Dozens of free design guides and plans for dozens of sunspaces and greenhouses you can build.

Attached sunspaces can be a good way to add solar heating, and provide some additional living space, or plant growing space. Sunspace designs vary widely depending on whether you want to 1) provide heat for the attached house, 2) provide more living space, or 3) grow plants, or some combination of the three.

One aspect that is not well covered in most of the sunspace guidelines is the desirability of a low thermal mass sunspace if your aim is to transfer a maximum amount of heat to the attached house -- see the Nick Pine write-up in the list below.

Directory for this page:

Design Guides for Sunspaces and Greenhouses
Sunspace Plans
Greenhouse Plans
Greenhouse and Heating and Cooling
Storing GH Heat
Root Cellar Plans

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Sunspace and Solar Greenhouse Design and Construction
Sunspace Notes: Attached sunspaces can be a good way to add solar heating, and provide some additional living space, or plant growing space. Sunspace designs vary widely depending on whether you want to 1) provide heat for the attached house, 2) provide more living space, or 3) grow plants, or some combination of the three. One aspect that is not well covered in most of the sunspace guidelines is the desirability of a low thermal mass sunspace if your aim is to transfer a maximum amount of heat to the attached house -- see the Nick Pine write-up in the list below.
The Homeowner's Complete Handbook For Add- On Solar Greenhouses and Sunspaces Andrew Shapiro	Very good book on the design and building of sunspaces and greenhouses. Provides quantitative design procedures that allow you to take into account your climate and sunspace objectives (house heating, plant growing, ...). Also covers construction, economics, & much more. Out of print, but generally available at Amazon.com used books (or the like). It would be hard to overemphasize what a really fine reference this is.
Solar Rooms -- excerpts from the book Passive Solar Energy, Bruce Anderson and Malcolm Wells	This set of extracts from the book Passive Solar Energy covers: + Types of solar rooms. + Design guidelines for solar rooms. + Construction details for solar rooms. + Pictures of example solar rooms.
Sunwings - The Harrowsmith Guide to Solar Addition Architecture Merilyn Mohr	Good book on attached sunspace design and construction. Many good ideas on how to plan, design and build an attached sunspace. Out of print, but generally available at Amazon.com (or the like).
Greenhouse Management Online www.uark.edu/~mrevans/4703/index.html	A fairly extensive free online class on design and construction, cooling, irrigation, ...
Solar Greenhouses Barbara Bellows http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/solar-gh.html	Good writeup on solar greenhouses. Covers fundamentals and then goes on to cover a variety of solar greenhouse approaches, including some unusual ones. Includes an extensive list of references.
The Solar Greenhouse Book James McCullagh (editor)	Good book on building solar greenhouses, and on growing plants in them. Out of print, but available on Amazon.com used books for less than a buck!
Sunspace design guidelines http://www.eere.energy.gov	Some general guidelines on sunspaces. Not very detailed.
Low Thermal Mass Sunspaces Nick Pine usenet post http://www.ece.vill.edu/~nick/usenet/ --See post number 307	Explains why a low thermal mass sunspace is best for maximizing heat delivered to the attached house. See post number 307
Design and Installation Guide Sundance Design Guide	This is a good 20 page or so sunspace/greenhouse construction guide. The Sundance website www.sundancesupply.com has more material.
Building The Solar Greenhouse Jack Ruttle http://www.survivalplus.com/foods/	Good set of guidelines for designing and constructing a solar greenhouse.
Designing and Building a Solar Greenhouse or Sunspace Mike Nuess www.healthgoods.com	Good overview of sunspace design with some useful detail
Construction and Greenhouse Tip Sheets, Charlie's Greenhouse www.charleysgreenhouse.com	Some useful tip sheets and building and using greenhouses.
Solar Sunspace Plans This list of sunspace plans could be longer -- how about contributing some more!! Gary
Sample Sunspace Pictures Sample sunspace pictures: http://www.sierragreenhouse.com/gallery/ www.sundancesupply.com/index2.html http://homeaddon.com/pg5-wood-sunrooms.cfm http://cedarbuilt.homestead.com/LeanToGreenhouses.html http://www.sturdi-built.com/greenhouse-styles-sizes.php	I am having trouble finding good plans for attached sunspaces. Here are some pictures gathered from here and there to illustrate how adaptable and good looking some of the sunspaces can be. Please let me know if you run across some good plans. Prices vary over a huge range depending on materials and construction, but sunspaces of all prices can perform well thermally. Also, many of the greenhouses shown in the next section can be adapted as attached sunspaces -- some of these can be built for pennies a square foot.
Artic Glass Sun Room Plan Plan Sheet 1 (800K) Plan Sheet 2 (800K)	Nice set of plans for a double glazed sunroom. Good details. Artic glass was providing these plans at the MREA Energy Fair, and appeared to be offering very good prices on the tempered glass to construct such a sunspace. website: www.KissOurGlass.com (honest) (this link appears to not be working for now 6/7/07)
Construction Details for Solar Rooms From the book: Passive Solar Energy"	Some good construction details for solar rooms.
Instant Sunspaces -- How cheap can a sunspace be? Laren Corie http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html Download the Feb, 2005 issue Ed's Zero Cost Sunspace ...	ESSN Journal, Feb, 2005 A good article by Laren Corie on how to build and experiment with inexpensive sunspaces. The example used in the article cost a grand total of $22, and went together in a couple hours! A free download. Here is another very low cost (actually zero cost) sunspace done by Ed. Details ... This shows how inexpensive and easy it is to turn a porch into a sunspace that is pleasant to spend time in, and can supply some heat to the house.
Embedded Sunspace Sustainable Housing Design Guide for Scotland www.archive2.official-documents.co.uk Full Description (111K pdf)	A nice concept for embedding sunspaces in multifamily units. This site has a lot of generally good information.
The Bathhouse Joe Schwartz and Ben Root How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article, issues 63 and 64 Very Good article on passive solar bath house using solar heated water. Built with emphasis on low impact and using local materials. Strawbale construction with native stone floors, and "dirt bag" foundation. Composting toilet. Planning, design, and construction details. 2nd part gives quite a bit of construction detail.
Earth-sheltered Greenhouse Mike Oehler Mother Earth News http://www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News Article, Issue 202 Good article on a unique design for a greenhouse that combines solar gain and earth sheltering. Good construction detail.
Mother’s Bioshelter Greenhouse www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News Article, Issue 100 July/Aug 1986 An interesting greenhouse design that combines a number of functions in one design. Uses both active and passive solar as well as photovoltaics.
One Man’s Personal Straw Bale Odyssey David Booth www.homepower.com Search HP archives for issue 46	Home Power Magazine article, issue 46 Good article on building a variety of small load bearing strawbale buildings, including a very nice greenhouse. Lots of background on strawbale construction, and some how-to detail.
Solar Closets and Sunspaces Nick Pine and Paul Bashus http://www.ece.vill.edu/~nick/solar/solar.html	An interesting idea for coupling a low thermal mass solar collection area with a well insulated, high temperature heat storage area that is used as a "solar battery" to heat the attached house during cloudy periods.
Convertible Solar Porch	A potential way to convert your porch into a sunspace using canvas and Vinyl panels. Panels roll up for quick conversion between open and enclosed.
Sunspace with Attached Solar Air Collector http://hometown.aol.comslee529282	An overview description of an interesting arrangement of sunspace and air collector.
Sunroom, Greenhouse and Skylight Plans http://www.jshow.com/y2k/listings/35.html	Plans for building sunrooms using tempered glass sliding glass door units. The glazing system appears to be well thought out and doable as a DIY project. Cost is $15.
Greenhouse Plans and Descriptions
Greenhouse Notes: Many of the greenhouses show below can be made into attached sunspaces by joining them to your house on the end, or by using half of the greenhouse to form a lean-to style greenhouse with your house wall providing the north wall of the greenhouse. In this case, heat can be transferred from the greenhouse to the house via ducts or windows or doors. These connections between the house and greenhouse can be closed at night when the greenhouse is cold. This can be a very cost effective way to heat a space. Many of the greenhouses plans below are not particularly energy efficient, and would need some design changes to earn the title solar greenhouse. These changes might include: 1) double wall poly construction with a small blower to inflate the space between the two layers of poly, 2) insulation on the north exposure, 3) the addition of moveable insulation for the glazed areas. In addition, to protect plants from freezing at night, thermal mass (e.g. water barrels) may need to be added depending on your climate. I have included plans for inefficient ones because they may have construction ideas that are right for your situation -- its up to you to change the designs a bit to make them more efficient. Making the changes will cost you a bit up front, but will payoff in much lower heating bills and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. See the first two entries for more on true solar greenhouses. There are some conflicts between using an attached greenhouse for space heating, and using it for plant growing. For maximum space heating of the attached house, the greenhouse space should have little thermal mass in order to provide a maximum of heat to the house during the sunny period. A low thermal mass greenhouse of this type will not be suitable for growing plants year round in cold climates, as the night time temperatures will go below freezing -- however, it may still be useful for extending the plant growing season. On the other hand, greenhouses intended for growing plants year round need more thermal mass to keep their heat overnight, and will have less heat to transfer to an attached house. The Andrew Shapiro book listed above, provides very good detail on these tradeoffs for various climates -- highly recommended. The plans cover sizes from small cold frames up to greenhouses you could play football in.
Passive Solar Greenhouse http://www.passivesolargreenhouse.com/	Very nice set of picture plans for building a true solar greenhouse. The design uses strawbale construction for the non-glazed walls, and twinwall polycarbonate glazing, and thermal mass to provide a greenhouse that will allow year round gardening in most climates without supplementary heating.
Converting a Conventional Greenhouse to Passive Solar, By Example http://byexample.com ...	Good article from By Example on converting a conventional greenhouse to a passive solar greenhouse through the addition of insulation, better sealing, and double glazing. Good detail. (thanks to Mel at By Example for suggesting this)
Passive Solar Greenhouse www.irisherbal.com/psg/content/process.html	A good series of picture plans for a passive solar greenhouse. The greenhouse uses Strawbale construction for the non-glazed walls, an insulated foundation, and incorporates a cistern in the design. Very nice.
Doug's Solar Greenhouse ...	A description of Doug's passive solar greenhouse, which is attached to his passive solar house. The greenhouse is used for plant starting and also provides some heat to the house. Some good information on planning and constructing a solar greenhouse.
Kiva's Straw Bale Greenhouse http://www.appropedia.org	Very nice and complete set of plans and pictures for a 10 by 12 foot greenhouse. Includes the use of 2 walls constructed from strawbales.
Flagstaff Solar Greenhouse http://www.chibardun.net/~javclan/page1.htm	A fairly detailed description of a nicely designed and built solar greenhouse for the challenging Flagstaff climate. Includes some detail on the GH design and construction. Also includes a little info on the water harvesting system and solar powered ventilation system.
Geothermally heated greenhouse Gary	Some photos of a geothermally heated, double wall greenhouse at the Chico Hot Springs resort, north of Yellowstone National Park. The Story...
Hoop House Construction for New Mexico: 12 ft X 40 ft Hoop House, Cooperative Extension Service -- Circular 606 College of Agriculture and Home Economics, New Mexico State University Full plans and instructions ... (pdf) The NM State University Extension Website: http://extension.nmsu.edu/	Very detailed plans and instructions for building a PVC pipe framed poly greenhouse.
High Tunnel or Hoop Houses The High Tunnel story... Plans for High Tunnels...	Lots of good information on building and using High Tunnel (or Hoop House) greenhouses. High Tunnels are simple, cheap greenhouses built with PVC pipe and poly film that are tall enough to stand up in. The site gives lots of data on both building and using High Tunnels.
50 Dollar Greenhouse http://doorgarden.com/...	Nice and detailed set of picture plans for building an 11 by 15 foot hoop house. The author built it for $50 with some contributions from his scrap bin, but its about $140 with all new materials.
Growers Supply http://www.growerssupply.com	Growers Supply is a supplier of both hobby and commercial greenhouse kits. The "Instruction Manuals" are downloadable, and are very detailed. The instruction manuals are a good source of construction details that you can use in your own design (I'm sure they won't mind).
Setting up a poly greenhouse https://secure1.hostsave.com/ssl/kitmaste/set_up.html	This shows what a typical poly sheet greenhouse kit looks, and how it goes together.
Hotbed and Propagating Frame University of Tennessee Extension UTEPlan5971 (668K pdf)	Hotbed 6 by 6 feet and 3.5 ft high. Covering is poly, and frame is made from conduit and wood. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Arched Roof Hotbed University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 6080 (500K pdf)	4 ft wide, poly covered hotbed. The poly is supported by 8 gauge welded wire fencing. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Solar Shed http://www.handyhome.com/solarshed.htm	Handy Home Products sells kits for these Solar Sheds, but also provides very, very detailed plans as a free download. Click on their "Instructions Available" link to get the plans.
Free plans for an attached greenhouse Sun Country Greenhouse Company www.hobby-greenhouse.com/FreeSolar.html	Pretty good plans for an attached greenhouse that uses glass glazing, and some words of wisdom about solar greenhouses. They also sell plans for a freestanding 8X16 greenhouse, and they sell greenhouse kits.
Small Greenhouse and Garden Storage LSU Ag Center GH and Storage Plan (pdf)	Plans for a small greenhouse with storage for garden tools at the north end. From: The LSU Ag Center www.lsuagcenter.com
9' X 12' Hobby Greenhouse LSU Ag Center Hobby Greenhouse Plans (pdf)	A 9' X 12' hobby greenhouse. Framing is EMT conduit. Schemes are shown for covering with poly or fiberglass. From: The LSU Ag Center www.lsuagcenter.com
Tri-Penta Greenhouse LSU Ag Center Tri-Penta GH Plans (pdf)	Plans for an unusual tri-penta greenhouse. Wood framed with poly covering. I am guessing the plans could be adapted to any size. From: The LSU Ag Center www.lsuagcenter.com
Plans for small Greenhouse From Suntuf	Plans for a small greenhouse using corrugated polycarbonate glazing panels. From the Suntuf website.
BuildEazy.com -- Greenhouse Plan www.buildeazy.com/greenhouse.html	Plan for a wood framed, poly covered greenhouse. Fairly detailed plans, and looks easy to build.
Low-Cost Versatile Hoop Houses George DeVault Mother Earth News http://www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News Article, Issue 196 Good article on building and using “hoop house” greenhouses, which provide a very low cost per sqft greenhouse. Some construction detail. This technique could also be used for inexpensive sunspace for generating solar heat for your house.
How to Build a PVC Hoophouse for your Garden www.westsidegardener.com/howto/hoophouse.html	Nice set of plans for a PVC hoop style greenhouse. Apparently, it can be put together by a 6 year old!
Small Backyard Greenhouse for the Home Gardner, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service www.bae.ncsu.edu ... (pdf)	Nice detailed plans for building a 12 by 14 ft greenhouse using PVC pipe frame and poly covering. If you are in a cold climate, I'd think about changing it into a two layer poly covering with the space between the layers inflated with a small blower (see 6720 GH just below).
Canada Plan Service Plan 6720 for Double Wall Greenhouse (pdf)	Two Layer Polyethylene Greenhouse plan. Canada Plan Service provides free plans you can download for this and MANY other Ag oriented barns, sheds, vegetable storage, ... All carefully thought out and engineered: www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/frameindex.htm
Plans for PVC greenhouses http://www.pvcplans.com/	Free plans for greenhouses, cold frames, and sheds framed with PVC pipe. Links to suppliers of PVC fittings for building PVC pipe frames. "Submitted Pictures" showing some of the shows some of the interesting things people have built with PVC pipe.
Simple PVC Frame Poly Greenhouse The Plan	How to build description of a simple PVC pipe framed poly greenhouse that was posted on the Homesteading Today website forum.
Gambrel Home Greenhouse University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 6181 (850K pdf)	10 ft by 12 gambrel roof style greenhouse. Fiberglass pane glazing. Might also work well with Polycarbonate twinwall glazing. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Portable Plastic Greenhouse -- plan 5946 University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 5946 ( 540K pdf)	Simple 7 by 12 ft poly covered greenhouse with bent wood for hoops. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Plastic Pipe Frame Hoop Greenhouse University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 795-3 (1.2 MB pdf)	12 by 21 ft Greenhouse framed with 1.5 inch plastic pipe. The design might be adapted to two poly walls with inflated space between for less heat loss. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
FloridaGardner -- Plans for a 32' X 10' Greenhouse www.floridagardener.com/greenhouse	Plans for a 10 ft wide by any length hoop style greenhouse from PVC pipe reinforced with steel rebar.
Large - Wood framed Greenhouse University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 6029 (1MB pdf)	Large greenhouse. 22 ft wide by 48 or 96ft long. Frames are wood trusses. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Large Gothic Arch Double Wall Poly Covered Greenhouse University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 6298 (420K pdf)	Large 21 by 40 ft greenhouse. Double wall poly cover supported by wood gothic style arches. This might be scaled down to an interesting design for a home size greenhouse. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Large Conduit Frame Poly Greenhouse University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 6217 (770K pdf)	20 by 80 ft poly greenhouse with metal conduit framing. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
Very Large Double Wall Poly Greenhouse University of Tennessee Extension UTE Plan 6185 (1.3MB pdf)	28 by 96 ft double wall poly covered greenhouse. Covered with two sheets of poly with blower inflation between. Wood or metal truss framing. From the University of Tennessee Extension service: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu
A Build-It-Yourself Pine Pole Greenhouse Christine and Wilson Goddard www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News Article, Issue 91 Good hands-on article on building a green house using locally available pine poles and poly sheeting. Some details on design and construction
A Solar Heated Greenhouse Richard Lane and Chuck Marken How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power magazine article, issue 96 Covers design, construction and performance of a solar heating system for a large greenhouse in Wisconsin.
Winter Food Production in Pennsylvania -- without Fossil Fuels. Steve and Carol Moore How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power magazine article, issue 99 An interesting article on the design of a large greenhouse for growing through the winter with solar heating. The design is simple and low cost.
Garage/Workshop Sunspace	Turn your south facing garage/workshop into a sunspace.
One Man’s Personal Straw Bale Odyssey David Booth How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article, issue 46 Good article on building a variety of small load bearing strawbale buildings, including a very nice greenhouse. Lots of background on strawbale construction, and some how-to detail.
Maine Solar Primer Modular Greenhouse Maine Solar Energy Association	Some ideas on simple frames for free-standing or attached greenhouses. Courtesy of the Maine Solar Energy Association
Stimson Marine -- Bow Roof Greenhouse www.h2othouse.com/html/greenhousebooklet3.htm	Detailed plans for a bow roof greenhouse. The plans cost $18 from Stimson Marine.
Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Schemes
Curtain Wall Ventilation Canada Plan Service Plan 9351 Curtain Wall Vent (pdf)	This wall curtain ventilation scheme was intended for livestock barn ventilation, but might work well for greenhouses? From the most excellent Canada Plan Services website: www.cps.gov.on.ca
Moveable Wall Panel Ventilation System Canada Plan Service Plan 9355 Wall Panel Ventilation (pdf)	This moveable wall panel ventilation system was intended for livestock barns, but might work well for greenhouses with the use of transparent panels? From the Canada Plan Service: www.cps.gov.on.ca
Fan and Pad Greenhouse Evaporative Cooling System R.A. Bucklin, J.D. Leary, D.B. McConnell, E.G. Wilkerson University of Florida Extension The Paper (pdf)	Paper from the Univ of Florida on designing and sizing evaporative pad cooling systems for greenhouses.
Plans for Evaporative Coolers www.igcusa.com/Catalogs/Coolair%20Install.pdf	Detailed plans for making evaporative coolers. Intended for greenhouses, but may be adaptable to other situations.
Rollup shade plans From Charlie's Green House The Plans (pdf)	Plans for a simple rollup shade from Charlie's Greenhouse in Seattle.
Bubble Wrap Window Insulation Gary New Installation Instruction Sheet (8/15/06)	A really cheap and quick way to insulate greenhouse glazing to prevent high heat loss in the winter. Can be put up and taken down seasonally. Added some small updates to instructions 11/13/05. Instruction sheet added 8/15/06
The Rutgers Solar Heating System for Greenhouses Mears, Roberts, Simpkins, and Kendall Rutgers University The Rutgers Solar Heating System for Greenhouse - 1977 (0.8 MB pdf) Greenhouse Solar Heating-1981 (2.5MB pdf) A related paper on a solar home using a similar flooded subfloor heat storage scheme. Similar collector used in an Aquaculture project: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/EH235	Papers from the Rutgers Horticultural Engineering website dealing with applying a combination of energy conservation, careful management, and solar heating with flooded subfloor heat storage. This combined strategy yielded energy savings up to 80% in a large demonstration project. While these papers are oriented toward commercial scale greenhouses, most of the concepts could be applied on a smaller scale. The solar collector (pictured) is amazingly simple, and may have other (low temperature) applications. A number of other interesting commercial greenhouse related papers at the Rutgers Horticultural Engineering Website: http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~horteng/
Movable Thermal Insulation For Greenhouses Roberts, Mears, Simpkins, and Cipolletti Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department , New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Movable Curtain Insulation (1.2MB pdf)	This very interesting paper details work done on several automatically controlled, movable curtain insulation systems for greenhouses. It includes test data for several systems that were developed and tested. While these systems are intended for large commercial greenhouses, some of the concepts, design information and test data are applicable to hobby greenhouses. Like this? A number of other interesting commercial greenhouse related papers at the Rutgers Horticultural Engineering Website: http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~horteng/
Grey water for greenhouse heating and plant watering For more on using greywater, see the water section ... .	Using grey water for greenhouse plant watering and as a source of heat for the greenhouse seems like a potentially good way to go. I've included the (meager) information I have been able to find on this below. If you have other information, pictures, ... please let me know -- Gary. www.greywater.com/treatment.htm And, www.greywater.com/samples.htm Greywater treatment with some discussion of GH use A GH that use greywater An overview of a greenhouse that uses greywater for watering and heating.
Solar Bubble Build www.solarbubblebuild.com/build_images13.php	Pretty detailed description of a building using the soap bubble insulation scheme. I'd say this is on the experimental side, but the idea has been used on some "real" greenhouses -- quite an interesting concept!
Plant Bed Heating -- Plant beds may be used to store excess greenhouse heat, John Canivan http://www.jc-solarhomes.com From John Canivan's JC-SolarHomes website.	An interesting concept for solar heating the plant beds in a greenhouse to minimize or eliminate the need for night heating.
Subterranean Heating and Cooling System www.sunnyjohn.com/indexpages/shcs.htm	A system that heats and cools the greenhouse using the earth under the greenhouse for heat storage.
Performance of Greenhouse Coupled to Earth-Tube-Heat-Exchanger in Closed-Loop Mode, G. Sharan, H. Prakash, R. Jadhav Download Report (220K pdf) Performance of Single Pass Earth-Tube Heat Exchanger: An Experimental Study, Girja Sharna, Ratan Jadhav Download Report (pdf)	Report on the use of earth tubes for greenhouse cooling in a hot and humid location in India. While this is a larger installation than most of us would need, it provides useful design material and results. The 2nd paper reports on an experiment done with a smaller earth tube -- detailed results are provided.
The Composting Greenhouse At New Alchemy Institute - A Report On Two Years of Operation and Monitoring, Bruce Fulford Heating a greenhouse with compost The Report (pdf)	Very extensive and detailed report on heating a greenhouse with compost. Two years worth of testing on design and type of compost issues.
Composting Greenhouse with Straw Bale Foundation, From Experiments in Sustainable Urban Living www.appropedia.org/ ... This uses surplus heat from a large compost pile under the greenhouse floor to heat water for the house. You get water heating and greenhouse space with the same structure!	This is a pretty slick idea for heating water with heat generated from compost, as well as providing greenhouse space. The thing that intrigues me is that you can apparently have working greenhouse space above the heat generating compost pile? I'd like to hear from anyone with composting experience on how workable this all seems? Gary
Heating from Large Wood Chip Compost Piles Jean Pain Mother Earth New article: www.motherearthnews.com/ ... Journey To Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/methane_pain.html There is also a book: The Methods of Jean Pain: Or another kind of garden, Ida Pain, 1980 (I was not able to find any copies of this for sale)	Some articles on the classic work done by Jean Pain in the 80's on generating heat and methane from large compost heaps made from finely cut wood chips. It is said that the amount of heat generated is of the scale that would allow home heating. Both water and air heating schemes were experimented with.
Storing Greenhouse Heat
Low-Cost Active Heat Storage, Nathan Hurst and Paul Harrison, ReNew Issue 100 Low-Cost Active Heat Storage pdf ....	The article describes a way to use a car radiator and water tank as an inexpensive way to store heat from a greenhouse. In most cases, when a greenhouse or sunspace heat is used to heat an attached house, hot air from the GH is blown into the house for immediate use. This paper shows a simple way to store GH heat for use later. (thanks to Nathan for making this available)
Root Cellar
Root Cellar for Vegetable Storage Canada Plan Service Root Cellar Plan 6321 (pdf) Root Cellar Info 6321 (pdf)	Root cellar for vegetable storage.
An Old Time Dug Out Root Cellar Walton Feed, Inc. http://www.waltonfeed.com/old/old/cellars.html The grand pappy of all underground storage areas...	Root cellar suitable for flat ground. Only one wall to build, rest are dirt. Stairway down to below ground door (Thanks to Hugh for relocating this link).