june 2020 kickstarter for wofati greenhouse

this thread is about preparing for the kickstarter!



We hope to launch on June 23.


click here for the HUGE list of earlybird stuff




The general idea is that we will build a wofati greenhouse, film it all and make movies for the kickstarter supporters.   Here are some rough drawings so far of what will be built:




Here is an early draft of the video from josiah:





click here to go to the kickstarter preview page!


Note the “notify me on launch” button at the top of the page - when we launch the kickstarter, kickstarter will notify you that it started within about five seconds.   It will take us about a day to notify you. Up to you if you wanna smack that button!    



As with previous kickstarters, we make the $1 level super heavy with excellent goodies.  And the $100 level is made super heavy with goodies.  




I made this thread to focus discussion on how to have an excellent kickstarter.    This earlier thread started with the idea of "should we?"  And it quickly turned to "yes" combined with a lot of talk about the design.  


We have 16 10 days to get this kickstarter on rails.   That isn't much time!  


Who here has read my book about doing a kickstarter?

If you are thinking of supporting the kickstarter, feel free to reply to this thread saying so.  Right now it is good for me to get a clear understanding of what is working and what isn't.  

I do need to say that I am nervous about this kickstarter.   I am a strong advocate for having skin in the game.  Normally, that would mean that "the thing" is already built and videoed, probably even edited, and we need a kickstarter bump to cover printing and stuff.  But this time, we haven't even started the project.   We currently don't have the funds to make this leap.  And while this was going to be a big project as part of the PTJ, which the PTJ was cancelled, we were moving on to other projects.   It's just that so many people seemed to be chomping at the bit for this project, and a lot of them wanted to be part of it online if they cannot be here in person ...   well, it seemed like one of those things where "if there is enough interest then we will do it!"

We are still hammering out budgets and stuff, but I think we will be asking for $15,000.

This is the script for the video we ran with:

I’m Paul Wheaton and this is my ninth kickstarter.  I’m bonkers about experiments -- experiments with rocket mass heaters, experiments with replacing irrigation with permaculture, experiments with round wood timber framing, and experiments with annualized thermal inertia.

I shared an idea with my podcast listeners and it seems that a LOT of people want me to shift my priorities and do this experiment NOW!  So much so that they are waving fistfuls of cash in my general direction. [. . . Wait--are those singles?]

The idea starts with how greywater systems will not work in our Montana winters.  But a small greenhouse could fix that! The problem is that most greenhouses need to be heated in winter, and they need a lot of care.  It would be better to have a fully passive greenhouse that uses no energy AT ALL, not even a fan, and doesn’t have any moving parts that might break or need maintenance.

Mike Oehler’s ingenious design is close - he was able to get his tomatoes to grow in December in north idaho with zero energy.  I talked to mike, shortly before he died, about some improvements.   And since then I’ve come up with a couple more.  Rolling all of these designs together, I think we can build a truly passive year round greenhouse in Montana.

The devious plot at this time is to video the whole process (the design, the build, the greywater system, and a winter of testing) so kickstarter supporters get a movie out of it.  So waddya say:  do you want us to try?

paul wheaton wrote: Who here has read my book about doing a kickstarter?

I must've read it, right?  I *think* I know how Paul does KS.   I tried to visualize it.  Hmmm.  Let's look it up:  Link.

Oh MY GOD!!!   What a F*TON of work!  And you're up for all that AGAIN?!   Respect!  (P.S.  The KS eBook draft is pretty awesome.)

paul wheaton wrote: I think we will be asking for $15,000.

Sounds good to me.  And I think you'll blow it out of the water, again.  (Maybe I'm biased because I love greenhouses but still don't have one.)

paul wheaton wrote:If you are thinking of supporting the kickstarter, feel free to reply to this thread saying so.  Right now it is good for me to get a clear understanding of what is working and what isn't.

I plan to support at the $100-200 range, because that is what I *feel* I can afford.   $500 is a psychological barrier that I *feel* I cannot afford.

This is going to be great!

How much do you project the greenhouse will cost in materials (just curious to see if it would be something I could afford to do).

Kerry Rodgers wrote:  (P.S.  The KS eBook draft is pretty awesome.)

I would like to find a co-author that will polish it up and post it to amazon.

Beth Johnson wrote:How much do you project the greenhouse will cost in materials (just curious to see if it would be something I could afford to do).

We are still working on our budget.

I have only a vague idea of what well casing costs.

Possibly the most important criteria for this is:  it will be a prototype - so this means that the costs will be higher than if we were building something that has been built a thousand times before.

I'll support the kickstarter.

I'll support the kickstarter.

I'll support the Kickstarter, but I've got a suggestion/request/groveling beg:  Please, PLEASE offer printed (or at least text/photo PDF) versions of your videos and other info.  PLEASE!  I'll support the Kickstarter if you don't, but I'd buy in at a higher level if I didn't have to look at videos to try to learn things.  Thanks!

I think this kickstarter will be 100% digital - so nothing printed and nothing shipped.  

I am hoping that we get something worked out with kyle to provide the plans.

paul wheaton wrote:I think this kickstarter will be 100% digital - so nothing printed and nothing shipped.  

I am hoping that we get something worked out with kyle to provide the plans.

Bummer but I understand.

Lif Strand wrote:Please, PLEASE offer printed (or at least text/photo PDF) versions of your videos and other info. [snip]  Thanks!

Yah. I have no way to play a DVD.

ETA: IOW, I can't play the older DVDs

I will contribute to the kickstarter.

I'm in!  This should be a great step forward in addressing all of the greenhouse "suck factor"!

I'm in for the early bird. Not sure about the level yet, but it is all looking good.

I'll support the Kickstarter! $50-100

I've been holding off on getting the PDC AND ATC stuff till I had some spare time, so seems like two birds for $200 plus candy! No time, Toulouse!

I look forward to the term "wofati" becomes common.

I’m in just because it’s you

In

Love your kickstarters Paul, and am inspired to build the greenhouse, so will definitely back you!

I will make a small contribution as always.

I am in total admiration of Paul and all his Wheaton Lab "rats"! Your hard work and creativity and devotion are outstanding.  I am in to support this kickstarter, probably at the $50 level.
Is it just me, or are you too generous at the dollar level? I get there will be benefits to infecting minds by getting this information out there, and what better way then for what everyone can afford.
Since I have never been on the other side of a KS, I would not know just how many folks contribute at the dollar level, nor how complicated it gets to add more levels.
I should go read Paul's how to do a KS. I am sure it will be eye opening.
Yeah team Wheaton!!

Is it just me, or are you too generous at the dollar level?

By doing a kickstarter, it is a huge amount of work.  My first kickstarter didn't bring in much - it is questionable whether it was worth the work.  

There is a big risk that it won't get funded at all.  And if I am going to go to this much effort, I want to improve my odds of getting funded.  

I think I have written about this before, it is a strategy I made up that I call "stepping stones".   The biggest leap is to jump from not supporting, to any form of support at all - even $1.   So I make the $1 level very heavy.  

Other kickstarters I've seen have the first level be something like "we will send good vibes your way."   I feel like that is some weak shit.  So I like to put substance there.  

More:  I give away MOUNTAINS of stuff for FREE all the fucking time.  And I feel like "hey, will you share this with a few other people because I think it is super important!"  And 99% of people take the position of "no - i just like to digest the information and then do other things."   So I feel a bit like if I give four gift codes for something that is not free and public, maybe half the people will share that info.  

Even more:  if somebody supports my kickstarter for even $1, that's a million times more than somebody that has consumed a thousand hours of my free stuff and never put in even a penny.   So I'm super grateful.   I dunno, people will tip the pizza guy two bucks, but won't throw in a buck after consuming thousands of hours of my stuff?   So if somebody throws in a buck, just one measly dollar - it just warms me to the bone.   I thoroughly enjoy setting them up with heaps of my stuff.  In fact, I would put in more, but it starts to get to be so much that it becomes "a large document is an unread document."  Which is why I super love the earlybird stuff:  if that list gets to a hundred things I am totally okay with that!

Is this a walipini-style greenhosue, or is just the doorway recessed?

I'm in.  Does streaming mean no down-loading to watch later?

Smooth wink wink.(I  am half way through your KS how to doc)
.

it just warms me to the bone

I get it. It crossed my mind that folks should be generous in response to obvious generosity. That's the way I am wired.
I also trust with so many KSers behind you , you may know a thing or two or three. And it all starts with $1.
Thanks for being a generous giant.

Timothy Markus wrote:I'm in.  Does streaming mean no down-loading to watch later?

Correct.   And, more importantly, we seem to get close to zero support needs.    Nearly all of the support time seems to go to downloading big files.   At the same time, a lot of people very much want to download.  So we are doing our best to find the optimal path.

I am interested

I ideal place would be to live in a wofati home with a greenhouse.   Would that be possible?    Could they be done together?    I always liked that the earthships had a sorta greenhouse in the front of them I just dont want a home made from tires. Just can't see how there would not be some off gassing from them.   But do like many of there aspects.  Like rain catchment, grey and black water systems, cooling pipes unground to cool the home and/or geenhouse.    
OF course this is all a dream as I have not the land or funds to do any of it at present.  I would just like to know if it is possible to do both together or would they need to be separate?
Will all this be addressed in the movie?  I will support it anyway but just wondering.  

I want to support your project, I'm in!

Great idea - and timely!

I'm in for the 100-200 level and excited to see the final result.

Will there be a sketchup file for the drawing? If so or if you want that I could try to work one up - basically a newbie with sketchup but it is a great "universal" visualization tool that also permits one to create "blueprint" drawings for building(? think) as far as I've seen with the little I've done so far.

Would it be possible to *insert* or *add* a chapter for those of us in the northern latitudes with !high! water tables in addition to the cold and snow load that is similar to Montana? Fundamentally, it would seem that you would build it on ground rather than IN ground with a correspondingly higher berm and perhaps some insulation in certain areas of the cross-section, but otherwise much the same???

3....2.....1....let's launch this!

I'm in. Bring it on!

I second the putting in a part for people with a high water table. That's me!

You can count me in!

Great concept. Count on me to join - $100.

I would love to build a zero energy greenhouse in Tennessee!

I think that there will be plans of some kind.  Probably PDF.  

If you have a high water table, I suspect that your greenhouse will end up surrounded by a huge moat - as the mater dug around the greenhouse was used to make it so the greenhouse is effectively on a bit a of a hill - so the water table ends up exposed.     But this probably won't be part of anything in this kicstarter - I think we are already taking on a lot of experiments as is - and it is difficult to make a design and video for something that is not a problem we are suffering from.   Further, it won't carry much weight if we offer a solution for something for which the problem doesn't exist during our experiment.

I'm in!