I live 7km from the sea where frosts are frequent (down to -4C /25F) but snow is pretty much unknown.
I am looking at building a Chinese style Greenhouse with a wooden frame. I am not going to try and do a roll-up curtain on the outside, but will build inter-Greenhouses for the tropical plants if I need it.
Is there any reason why a basic lean-to with a straight sloping roof and straight walls is not as good a shape as any other?
Does steep roof pitch or slanting side walls really maximise sun exposure to plants if the floor area is the same? I can't logically see why they would. They may maximise the ratio of sunlight to air inside the greenhouse by a little bit. (I know that plastic sheedt left directly on plants can burn them within a hour, so there is some importance in this). Because these will be used also as valuable living space, having adequate roof height is important. (our three bedroom house is 100m2 / 1000ft2 and we also use it as home office/factory for multiple buinrsses.)
EDIT
This is the suncharts for 100km away/
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/architecture/centres/cbpr/resources/pdfs/wlg_sunpath.pdf
We also have an average max in our hotest month of 23C / 73F and the highest on record is 31C/81F, so sweet potato, eggplant, melons etc really need extra heat as well even in mid-summer. One market garden even grows their sweetcorn in a tunnel house in summer! The house already has a 1m overhang on the sunfacing side, that shades summer sun. I am happy for the greenhouse to get full sun in summer and just vent out the excess.
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