Climate Battery

Hi Folks,
I'm planning to build a climate battery greenhouse attached to the south side of my house.
I feel like I have designed enough systems in place to keep it from freezing. Greenhouse In the Snow videos say he just keeps it from getting below 28F.
I'm concerned about the summer heat making my bedroom/house too hot in south /central Kansas, Zone 6b. I would like to visit similar greenhouses this summer to see if I should really spend the money. Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks so much,

Charolett Knapic
Echo Landscapes, Inc.
Wichita, KS

I want to follow this thread.  I don't have a lot of skills in this area, but it's really interesting and could have a lot of positive effects.

John S
PDX OR

OK,
So, a new engineer permie friend from Lawrence, KS allowed me to tour and ask lots of questions about his retrofit sunroom addition on the southside of his house. It also goes down about 3 ft and then stairs to enter his basement. It's around 9' deep and 25' long. Really gave me a good feel for what I may end up with. He doesn't plan on a climate battery but the well-insulated roof keeps it a reasonable 50-90F year-round in zone 6A. He also had a skylight to allow light in for the summer.
I'm concerned that my 12'  x 25' climate battery might not get enough light to the back of it for the citrus trees. I could allow for a skylight but I'd rather not have more holes in the roof and am thinking that a cross between sunroom type roof and straight up and down windows with Earthship windows (which seem to be 69-70° might solve the problem. Wichita's coldest January window angle for best light is about 45°. I'm assuming their angle is to minimize summer sun but I don't think the greenhouse part is 12' deep. Perhaps I'll need to shorten to 9' or add that skylight and insulate it in the winter.
Any experienced people out there with advice?

Sorry I didn't see this when you first posted it.  My freestanding greenhouse is 17' tall.  On a sunny day in the dead of winter it gets up to 120F high up in there.  In the summer I have modest sized vents down low and up high and that keeps the temp down to 105 or lower.  So with good ventilation you can keep it from getting too hot for plants.  That might still be too hot for a bedroom wall.

Looking at your picture, are you sure you have enough sun hitting your proposed location?  Seems like you have some pretty big shadows on that lawn and in winter they'll be much longer.

Mike Haasl
Good to know about your heat. And I didn't even notice the tree shade on the ground!!! It does usually leave the driveway, prospective greenhouse area, sunny at least for now. I do plan to fell the larger trees and plant fruit trees. They're walnut and hackberry and I have others of those that don't affect my food production.
I think that with at least a partial insulated roof will mitigate summer heat without compromising too much light.
Thanks for the interest!
Plant seeds,
Sing songs,
Charolett

Are you sure it doesn't shade the side of the house in the winter?  I really suspect it does.  It looks like that picture was taken in early to mid summer when the sun is highest in the sky.  But you know your landscape better...

It's a neat build, have fun with it!

Thanks Mike,
I'll check that tree shade out more closely. It can be easy to overlook things at times.

Hi All,
My architect friend came up with these drawings for the add-on sunken greenhouse. Avoiding disturbing the ground near the house basement footings is going to lessen my earth tube footage that goes lower than the basement floor. Anybody else have this problem? Perhaps I'll need to go down another couple feet to get the right ratio of tubing per cu. ft. of greenhouse space but that's getting 10-12 feet down.  I don't know how far down a backhoe can go and I sure don't want to hit water which could be a possibility.
I'm also planning on shade, window breeze, top vents, and water cooler, plus the house wall will insulate the north side of the greenhouse.
I just heard of a climate battery built here in Wichita that I'm trying to locate for a visit to see how they built theirs.
Any help would be appreciated!.