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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 16, 2012 6:45:07 GMT -5
Later in life I always wondered how they put hinges on those round doors.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 16, 2012 18:56:21 GMT -5
You know, I don't think they did put hinges on them. I think they photo shopped them into the film. When you look at the place that it was filmed, none of them have doors. (Now you'd think if they really had gone to the trouble to build round doors and figure out how to hinge them) they'd still be there? No?
Leo thought these "military buildings would make excellent vegetable bunkers...aka root cellars".
The military never thinks of anything useful. We envisioned this underground with solar and skylights, or one of those pyramid or dome things on top. (No round door though, how about a glass door instead?)
Haven any of you seen the talk on Ted TV about the film that collects light and creates power? You put it on the windows. I can hardly wait. (Justin Hall-Tipping, Freeing Energy from the Grid). Our son turned us on to this because it was something I posited to him one day when I was weaving. I thought we could make a curtain that collect light in the daytime and released it at night. Window film is even better! No dry cleaning!
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Post by raymondo on Feb 16, 2012 23:21:44 GMT -5
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Post by traab on Feb 19, 2012 19:57:45 GMT -5
At the koanga site check out the bean seeds, Takamatua Black Seeded and Sutton's Giant are interesting runner beans. Any beaniacs out there?
At the remnants of a local estate 6 foot deep pits lined with brick also sported concrete platforms close to the surface for planting beds, steam pipes were used to heat the sunken greenhouses.
A local greenhouse was built in an excavation but was so large little advantage came from being sunken.
Insulation around the edges would probably make sense. Planting near a heated basement foundation can be advantageous with no excavation.
Frost in my area could reach 4 feet so a limited winter use is inevitable.
An East West orientation is ideal for maximum solar gain but the winter sun is weak and some light is lost passing through glazing. For overwintering semi hardy plants it may not be so critical to be oriented to maximum solar gain.
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 22, 2012 9:11:27 GMT -5
Our frost line is quoted as 4 feet too though it varies quite a bit with location because of snow depth, timing of snow and so on. I'm going to give it a go (probably won't be the full depth for various reasons - rock) and see what happens.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 22, 2012 21:56:42 GMT -5
Yes, the beaniacs saw those runners and begged for them. They promptly arrived, and I sent them along to Wolf Cub. There wasn't enough to share, seed packages always give you too few runners, so she's going to grow them and share with me next year. This way 2 folks on this side of the big blue puddle keep those beans alive. Ottawa, I can't wait to see what you do. Take a lot of photos please. www.calacademy.org/academy/building/the_living_roof/ check out their cool roof dots and living roof.
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Post by richardw on Feb 22, 2012 23:59:58 GMT -5
As Ray mensoned i built one a few years ago which would be called a earth insulated greenhouse of a type. The four walls are of stone and is also been dug down about 30cm in to the ground,earth is mounded down two of the wall sides and grasses planted as to insulate the mound. It works really well in winter when it can get down to -9C here, inside it always stays above freezing but only just. I'll go out and get some more photos and post later [
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Post by richardw on Feb 23, 2012 2:47:07 GMT -5
Ok some more photos. These are the New Zealand native grasses that keep in the warmth of the soil and stonewalls inside How i built it was i started off with 4 down each side of hardwood posts concreted into the ground,then between a trench was dug and filled with concrete for the foundation for the walls.Because we are a earthquake prone country i needed to reinforce the walls so holes were drilled in the posts and bolts were screwed in so fence netting could be laced onto each one,the stone wall went up both sides of the netting and concrete in between encasing the netting.I'm so pleased i did this because my region has seen 10000 after shocks since devastating earthquakes hit the city of Christchurch 100kms to the south.After the first 7.4 hit the first thing i thought of was "MY POOR TUNNELHOUSE' but after running out there i found there was not even a crack, nothing. If i was to do it again and i think i will do one more but i would do it differently though and bigger,the one i have now faces the wrong way as it runs north south, but it would have been better if it was east west,one high (3 meters )wall facing the sun to the north and the other no more than just above the ground,the tallest wall would again be earthed up behind as the heat sink,if it was also double skin plastic or glass i would be able to grow tomatoes/peppers etc year round which i cant with the current structure.
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Post by MikeH on Feb 23, 2012 2:58:54 GMT -5
Richard, Far and away the best greenhouse that I have ever seen. Is that mesh supporting the plastic skin? Regards, Mike Attachments:
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 23, 2012 6:15:18 GMT -5
That's a pretty awesome greenhouse Richard. Do you ever get snow? When ray first showed the pics I was wondering how you got away with so few hoops but I see the trusses inside the house must be carrying a lot of load.
Much bigger than that and you are going to need to make more provision for ventilation. If you go with the Mike Oehler design you can do a lot with passive ventilation using the cold sink to create an air siphon effect.
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 23, 2012 8:30:47 GMT -5
Nice and I love the grasses flanking its side.
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Post by richardw on Feb 23, 2012 13:18:24 GMT -5
Richard, Far and away the best greenhouse that I have ever seen. Is that mesh supporting the plastic skin? Regards, Mike Yes Mike,its plastic coated netting,so that makes it a bit softer on the plastic above it. I added the netting a year or so after first building it,i read about a bloke in Bolivia doing aid work over there where they were building greenhouses,because Bolivia been so high up the plastic was only lasting about 5 years but the ones with mesh support were lasting three times longer,seems to be the combination effect of UV's plus wind that brakes down the plastic
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Post by richardw on Feb 23, 2012 13:36:59 GMT -5
That's a pretty awesome greenhouse Richard. Do you ever get snow? When ray first showed the pics I was wondering how you got away with so few hoops but I see the trusses inside the house must be carrying a lot of load. Much bigger than that and you are going to need to make more provision for ventilation. If you go with the Mike Oehler design you can do a lot with passive ventilation using the cold sink to create an air siphon effect. We do get snow but not deep,no more than 20cm,but even 20cm would have been to much for the hoops on there own given they are only aluminium,the new ones we can buy here in NZ are all steel now days because aluminium hoops in the past had collapsed under snow,knowing this, this was why i added the support trusses. Well i don't know if you do need to make more provision for ventilation if it were to be bigger,i think its about having the internal area space equalling the amount of wall,not enough stone/concrete wall and you would get greater in temp fluctuations both in summer and winter.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 23, 2012 16:13:46 GMT -5
I'd love to have seeds of that grass!
What a beautiful greenhouse. I'm a sucker for stone work, but I too am in earthquake central. Leo had thought about gabion baskets for the walls, and we've recently found some very slim water storage units that we are thinking about....
Thanks for sharing!
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Post by richardw on Feb 24, 2012 3:11:44 GMT -5
I'd love to have seeds of that grass! What a beautiful greenhouse. I'm a sucker for stone work, but I too am in earthquake central. Leo had thought about gabion baskets for the walls, and we've recently found some very slim water storage units that we are thinking about.... Thanks for sharing! The grasses are seeding right now if you would like some,just flick me a PM. One good thing about growing lots of the grass Silver tussock (Poa cita)is the mulch under older plants are great for using in the garden added around as a weed suppressant. Ive got 100's planted in the gateway into our property
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