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The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers
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 ...
 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:
- It will never freeze because the under deck ground is warm (it
is part of the insulated umbrella around the house)
- In sunny days (especially in summer) will pump heat under
the house.
- It doesn't cover the view from my bedroom
- It gets good protection from strong winds
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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.
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.
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.
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.
The green house has been completely covered with polycarbonate.
Polycarbonate was cut around the door and window with 1cm edge for
a good seal.
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:
Cristian
April, 2011
Gary May 30, 2011
