The Winter Greenhouse, grow in -40'C

Tips, Tricks

1. It is up to how much you like to invest a greenhouse. CCTV said the PLA built up greenhouses that grow year round @-44℃ and -53℃.
2. Please understand the Chinese's method are used all over northern China. They don't claim to grow food all year round (although in some zone they could). What the Chinese are doing is extend the growing season without resorting to external heating thus keeping the cost down. The idea is to make a greenhouse that can store as much heat energy as possible with cheap readily available material, be it the sun or natural things (by 3 side walls, earth ram, water canisters, compose and even animals). I have seen them building their cooking stove into the greenhouse, thus harvesting every joule of heat. And the biggest difference in their method is the extreme they will go to retain the heat. They blanket the greenhouse in the night with reflective insulation. This is similar to a westerner putting an electric engine warmer/heater in the car vs a Japanese putting a blanket over the car. The issue comes down to philosophy.
3. A bit light on the details.
4. Thermal Battery Technology! Where can I find more information about this?
5. sadly because of where you are it's near impossible with out extreme amounts of insulation.
6. Do you have access to plans for that log-cabin style greenhouse at the end?
7. Hello Scott,
   We live in Alberta and would like to build a greenhouse like this. Would you be able to direct us or do you sell plans?
   Thanks,
   Sandra
8. Are there examples of commercial greenhouses in Canada and ideally Alberta using this technology? It seems like a brilliant idea as heating a greenhouse in the winter is such a high cost that it makes it more economical to bring in vegetables from Mexico. I would like to investigate this further and talk to some greenhouse owners but am not sure where to turn. I've looked into the Drake Landing experiment in Okotoks (I'm in Calgary) and it looks impressive too.
9. Send me an email, please. I'm in northern Manitoba and I'm very interested in solar greenhouses. johnleclair55@gmail dot com
10. Using such a system in -40 degree weather would require enormous amounts of heat, much more than what is required to heat a typical home. Because a greenhouse is effectively a huge window, it has very high heat losses, similar to what a home would have if the entire roof and one wall was glass. Losses can be reduced with multiple layers of glazing, or even vacuum insulated glass, but the cost of the greenhouse would go up dramatically. Can it be done, yes.
11. Wow sounds really fascinating!! Never knew this existed!
12. thats a coincidence, thats my current project I'm doing! I'm going to have to use a 40-50 odd watt solar panel to power mine which I will make myself hopefully.
13. Mine has been doing it for 6 years but not without a little help from winter sun :) If you decide to follow LDS`s geothermal design make sure you do some calculations before burying the tubing..it`ll save you having to dig it all up again.
14. Storing heat in the summer to last the winter isnt possible. With enough sunny winter days and good insulation you should be able to keep the greenhouse above freezing.
15. Hey there! I've just moved out to MB and have plans for building a year round greenhouse since with aquaponics a quick summer one just doesn't do it for me. I would LOVE to see it if you build something like this or if you want to chat about ideas just PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can! I'm thinking rammed earth tire walls for the N, E & W sides to hold the heat and provide some insulation but that heating system you mentioned is very interesting ...
    Let me know if you want to brainstorm on the topic! -JT Bear
16. Hi Scott, I've seen your comment over on LDS Peppers channel. Will you document and post the building of your greenhouse?
17. HOW ABOUT COST?