Heating a greenhouse

Good morning permies. I have an idea. Wondering if you put a cellar at one end of a greenhouse. Run some pipe from cellar the length of greenhouse with pipe coming up vertical from underground pipe. Put a rocket stove in the cellar. Heat up cellar really hot and  blow warm air through pipes. Would it  warm the ground under the greenhouse. Would warm air make it through the pipes and out into the greenhouse. Here's a drawing. Thanks again and keep up the hard work.

What is the glazing on your greenhouse? What is its orientation to the sun? The heat you do capture from the cellar will only last according to the glazing.

What are your daytime and nighttime temps in the winter where you are?

Is there a way to put the RMH inside the greenhouse? If it has a bench, it's great to use as a heat mat for starting seeds. My bench has been a lovely seed starter.  Also, the mass of it not only gets hot from the fire inside, but depending on the construction material, can absorb heat from the sunlight during the day and release it back in to the greenhouse at night, along with releasing heat at night from the internal burn.

Also, are you having another need heat a cellar, which is often uses cool temperatures for food storage?

Have you already built the greenhouse? Cellar?

Good morning Angela. The greenhouse house is 30'×96'.cover is 6mil thermax on inside layer.6mil clear on the outer layer.sun master is the brand. No I haven't built the  cellar. Yes I would use a rocket furnace. I sent a pic of rocket furnace. I also have a thread called  huge batch box rocket stove on permies. I live in northern New York. Right now it is 0 out.sat was -34.the green house runs east to west.day and night temperatures are all over the board this year. But normally winter day temperatures are in the high teens and twenties. Wierd but it's 0 now but sapossed to hit 40 today. No I don't really need the cellar but if the idea worked I wouldn't hesitate to put it it.maybe a cool spot to take a break in the heat of summer. Thanks and have a great day Angela.

Eric Hroboni wrote:blow warm air through pipes. Would it  warm the ground under the greenhouse. Would warm air make it through the pipes and out into the greenhouse.

Eric, the technique of storing heat in the soil underneath a structure is called Annualized Geo-Solar.  You can use it for both heating and cooling.  The idea is to store the temperature at a depth that creates a 6month delay.  You can use a solar chimney or just excess greenhouse heat as your source of heat storage without needing to use a furnace.  See for example this video.  The best resource for understanding how to optimize earth tubes I've seen is comes from a related technique called Passive Annual Heat Storage.  I'm not sure if you can still get the plans for the Greenhouse In The Snow design, but they also use Earth Tubes.

Good morning. I  guess  I have to go to a greenhouse that has underground pipes for heating and cooling. My biggest concern is lack of sunlight up here on this hill.it can be cloudy and rainy or snowing here. Three miles down the road sunny and beautiful like a different world. We fired up the gh 1-14-23 this year for first batch of cuttings and never seen sun for 13 days. Even the rocket furnace burned a lot of wood. The hardest I ever ran it.i put wood in every 5 hours for almost two weeks straight. My biggest question is how warm can you keep the night temperatures in the greenhouse with the  charging of the earth and no wood stove. Ideally I try to keep it 62°_68° farinhiet. New Guinea impatiens love 68°night temperatures. This is why I am asking about heating the ground up with rocket stove. We have built a  new model that runs way more efficiently than the first and would be perfect for what I was thinking. Can't put any pics of it yet for a couple reasons but it works awesome. Thanks again permies and keep up the good work P.S. I have  mentioned permies in my two you tube video and in replys.they edit out the permies any time I say or write it.

Just another thing on my  mind is.the rmf I am heating with takes up a huge foot print. We also had the discussion of getting heat to the other end of greenhouse. Duct work was mentioned but it would create a shade spot the whole length of  gh.also would be a pain in the ass to work around when  hanging and taking down hanging baskets. That was another reason I thought about a cellar. I  could put rmh in it. And possibly store my wood down there  also. Just  exploring my options with professionals. Thanks again.

Eric Hroboni wrote:My biggest question is how warm can you keep the night temperatures in the greenhouse with the  charging of the earth and no wood stove. Ideally I try to keep it 62°_68° farinhiet.

Eric, do you get plenty of sun in the summer?  The idea of the earth tubes is that you store the summer heat for winter use.  Both Annualized Geo Solar and Passive Annual Heat Storage were designed for houses, to passively keep them around 70F year round.  The challenge with the greenhouse is that it is much less insulated.  The principles outlined in the design of the Greenhouse in the Snow mitigate some of the typical greenhouse loses.  They use earth tubes more as Geothermal rather than heat storage.

I'm sure you could store heat in the ground with a Rocket Mass Heater as well, with the mass being the ground under the greenhouse.  You may just not want to bury the pipes as deep if you are only wanting to provide heating when you need it in the winter.  Paul Wheaton summarizes several other ideas about how to keep a greenhouse warm in his Wafati Greenhouse video here.

Hello Burton. Thanks for the input. I think my problem is my greenhouse go unused until mid of January, February, March. Winter started in November this year and I loose any stored heat quickly before I  even start up the  greenhouse.

Eric, a Rocket mass heater greenhouse may just suit you.  Try searching for "rocket mass heater greenhouse".  Here are a few links that may help: Midwest Permaculture, Que Sehra Farm, Permies discussion, and Paul Wheaton video.