Rate my Custom Home/Greenhouse Homestead Idea - Sketchup Model Included

Long time lurker, first time poster.  I think I'm finally ready to get some outside feedback on my design thus far.  Hopefully there are some ideas in here that you can use as well.

See attached SketchUp file for rough 3d model of my design.  Screenshots included below for those without the ability to open in SketchUp.

Location: Ohio / lower Michigan (USDA zone 5 or 6)

Goals:
Combine a house, greenhouse, organic pool/pond, shop/garage, and chicken run into a single integrated unit without any wasted space or material with easy access to everything.
Significantly self-sufficient (not completely, but close)
Don't give up any normal modern creature comforts
greenhouse to stay above freezing (ideally like 40+ F) to allow growing plants up to USDA zone 10.

House Structure:
approximately 110' long x 30' wide with a 4/12 pitch metal standing seam roof
10' c-c timber frame building structure with SIP panels for walls and ceiling. (very airtight structure)
concrete slab floor, sealed/etched concrete left uncovered to allow concrete to act as solar thermal mass. (maybe a few rugs here and there)
continuous insulation around and under slab.
one end of house will have large porch, while the other has 2 garage doors and a man door.

Greenhouse Structure:
approximately 110' long x 30' wide with a 6/12 pitch polycarb roof
greenhouse section would be built like a pole barn with metal trusses and wooden upright posts.  all posts and trusses painted gloss white.
polycarbonate sheets for roof and side walls of greenhouse.  The southern low end of the greenhouse would utilize plastic sheeting that could be rolled up to allow the entire southern wall to be opened for ventilation in the summer. large vents in the northern wall of the greenhouse above the house roof to allow good ventilation.  Hardware cloth in all ventilation areas to prevent bugs/critters getting through.
both ends to have roll up doors to allow easy access to bring in compost/woodchips/chicken tractor/etc:..

Systems:

Passive Solar:
The greenhouse side would obviously be facing south to collect the most sun.  the upper portion of the greenhouse roof (exact measurements calculated based on latitude to provide sunlight into the house in the winter but not in the summer) would likely either be metal roofing sheets, or solar panels.
the shared wall between house and greenhouse would either have a ton of windows (preferably older windows that aren't low-e and allow maximum solar gain through them), or i'm considering using polycarbonate panels both on both the inside and outside of the framing.  if sealed well this would create an air gap to add insulation value but still allow a lot of light through for solar gain in the summer.  I'm probably going to have to do some real world tests to see how much solar gain you can actually get through 2x polycarb panels vs regular windows.  May have issues with condensation if using the polycarb... could also maybe make it into some sort of Trombe wall... Would love some insight here.

Greenhouse Heating:
The greenhouse would contain a centrally located organic pool/pond with an inset "hot tub" area.  water would be pumped from the southern end of the pool over to a long thin bog filter that then flows into an old metal bathtub which is placed on top of the burn tunnel of a fairly large RMH.  In winter the RMH would heat the water in the bathtub as it flows and it would then fall into the "hot tub" area of the pool. The RMH barrel is also partly surrounded on one side by a brick/stone/concrete sauna for additional heat retention.

Greenhouse Insulation:
the perimeter of the greenhouse area would be insulated with ridged foam insulation between the concrete footers holding the support posts.  Maybe it could be continuous on the inside of the posts, but a lot of space would be lost (depending on diameter of concrete footings).  Any advice here would be appreciated.
My hope is the ground insulation, large body of water, and the RMH are enough to keep the greenhouse frost free, but if needed I'm considering adding an insulation blanket of some sort (maybe reflectrix) to the underside of the metal trusses.  Ideally it would be on rollers or a curtain system of some sort to allow it to be retracted during the day and let out at night.  I haven't seen any good designs of an insulation blanket like this INSIDE a greenhouse structure.  They're common on the outside in Chinese style greenhouses, but I'd rather not mess with an outside blanket, just seems ripe for issues with snow and ice and maintaining it would be a nightmare.  any advice appreciated.

Chickens:
The west side of the greenhouse would contain a chicken run (the lighter colored green area).  there would be a hardware cloth wall between the chicken area and the rest of the greenhouse.  the chickens would stay in the chicken tractor during the winter, then in summer can move the chicken tractor outside.  the chicken tractor nest box would be on the rear of the tractor, the wall of the garage would have an opening that allows the nest box to protrude through the wall into the garage.  a gasket material and straps of some sort would be utilized to cinch the tractor against the wall and create a nice seal.  This allows collection of eggs without ever going outside or into the chicken run.

Earth Tubes:
Not shown in the model, but earth tubes would be utilized for intake air for both the indoor masonry heater and the greenhouse RMH.  The pipes would be N12 double walled pipes with proper slopes to drain all condensation away and outside.  This building would be placed near the top of a hill so that a slope can be maintained and the earth tubes can come out of the ground horizontally without requiring a pit.  screens and filters would be placed at each end of the earth tubes to prevent anything organic from getting in the tube and allowing mold/fungus to form.  My hope is the pre-cooled (summer) air moving through the masonry structures will lead to passive cooling in the summer.

Also not shown but there would be a slight slope to the south in the greenhouse starting at the shared house/greenhouse wall.  I plan to add a cold sink trench near the southern edge and potentially use N12 piping again (with filters and sloped) to maybe add some passive heating/cooling from moving air through the earth tubes with just convection (no fans).  Would appreciate some feedback on this as I'm not sure if it would really make much difference... but digging a trench and throwing in some piping seems pretty easy, especially when I'm going to have the digging equipment and everything already on site.

An earth tube would also be added running to the mechanical room and would connect to the intake of the ERV.  My hope is the pre-heated/cooled air would make the ERV way more efficient and maybe cut down significantly on the need for A/C and Heat from the mini split.

Ventilation:
the only ventilation would be from a large ERV.  pulling air from the bathrooms/kitchen/ridge of house, and putting air back into the bedrooms and living areas.
there would also be a mini-split type unit, ideally with wall mounted air handlers in the master bedroom and the 2nd bedroom.
as discussed in the greenhouse structural section above - the entire south wall of greenhouse could be rolled up to allow ventilation, while the upper ridge area has large vents to exhaust hot air.  fans could be added if needed, but I'm hoping this will provide enough airflow to keep things from getting too hot in the summer.  I'm also not opposed to putting up shade cloth if needed, should be easy to attach it to the underside of the metal trusses.

Electric:
no electrical penetrations through the SIP envelope.  all power would be ran inside the building envelope.  my thought is to create a box (approx 6" tall x 10" or 12" deep) a couple feet off the ground that runs all along the inside perimeter of the house.  the electrical wires would be inside that box, the face of the box could easily be removed with a couple of screws if you need to get to the wiring behind it.  the outlets would be on the underside of that box, and the top side could be used as shelving.  from this perimeter box you can get power to the standard 2x4 or 2x6 internal walls and run lines and install outlets like normal.  No idea if that would meet electrical code, but I'm probably going to try and get this classified as an agricultural building where i just put up shell as if it's a barn/greenhouse, and then once the walls are up I'll do whatever is needed inside and just not pull any permits.

Solar Evacuated Tubes:
This is a newer idea I'm toying with, but I'm thinking of adding solar evacuated tubes mounted to the roof trusses in the greenhouse and put somewhat close to the polycarb roof to absorb as much heat as possible.  Ideally this would be over the pool area to not block as much light to plants, and maybe keep the pool a bit cooler in the summer (although I'm slightly concerned about broken glass falling into the pool if something bad happens).  This would be connected to a radiator of some sort in the hot tub section of the pool for additional passive heating in the winter.  in the summer they could be covered with something that blocks the infrared light spectrum that they operate on (likely metal panels of some sort).  I feel like there has to be a way to use this setup to also provide cooling in the summer, but I haven't figured that out yet.  I could also just mount the tubes to the shared wall and placed so that they only get sun in the winter.  Any thoughts here?

Irrigation:
You can see a couple IBC totes in the greenhouse.  I would pump water out of the pool and into these tanks then these tanks would be used for irrigation of the greenhouse plants.  I could also use the containers to make compost tea and irrigate with the tea whenever needed.

Plants:
the plan is to utilize a perimeter walking path and keyholes throughout the greenhouse to maximize growing space as much as possible.  I'd have citrus trees, avocados, stonefruit, figs, etc:... with perennial herbs and veggies in between, and some annual veggies mixed in along the edge of the path for easy access.  My plan is to grow vining plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, etc:... along the shared wall, up string/trellis as necessary.  I'm hoping if done right i can grow some vining and indeterminate plants and get them to fruit year round - has anyone had success with this, any tips?

I think that's the basics, would love to get some feedback on everything.  I've got pretty thick skin so feel free to call me an idiot and say something won't work

Thanks!

Wow! I'm going to need some time to digest this. I'm not showing it to my other half - he'd love garage doors into the house!

Hi Logan, that looks like a good plan. I like how you combine a whole lot of systems into a house and greenhouse. Putting chickens where you can easily feed them scraps from the kitchen and the greenhouse makes a lot of sense.

Kind of a barndominium inspired mashup... I like the idea.


I have some thoughts that don't mean criticisms, but could be slightly aimed that way.

1. Greenhouses make a lot of humidity, houses suffer from excess humidity, especially in summer. In winter the humidity would be a benefit, especially if your heating systems are drying out the living space. But summer is going to get moldy if you don't have an air conditioner fighting against the humidity in the living space.

2. With the orientation greenhouse towards the south, that puts the deck and covered patio facing west, making them uncomfortable outdoor spaces in both summer and winter, and your garages are blocking the morning sun from your living spaces. If you mirror/flip it around, an east facing patio and deck become nice sunny morning coffee spots and cooler, shady evening grilling areas. And the garages are blocking the late afternoon summer sun when you don't want its extra heat, and blocking the northwest cold prevailing winds in winter.

3. The clerestory windows would be better reversed so the light can penetrate in to the living space bypassing the greenhouse glazing, allowing better control over the living space light and ventilation independent of the greenhouse.

4. As I mentioned in point 1 above, HVAC is going to be a challenge, and I bet there is little experience in the conventional building and HVAC  industries to give you good guidance for such a unique structure. Be prepared for experimentation and repeated revisions of the system.  Prepare for this by setting up the infrastructure to allow easy modifications to the HVAC, like in-slab heating/cooling pipes with the option to transfer heat from living to greenhouse space, electrical connections for ventilation fans in several locations, etc.  

5. Consider a couple of direct-drive solar powered mini-split like this:

https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-hybrid-solar-mini-split-air-conditioner-heat-pump-ac-dc-12000-btu-seer2-22-plug-n-cool-do-it-yourself-installation/

6. There are several greenhouse builds that have been featured here on Permies over the years, some have the insulating curtains that deploy on the inside. See if you can find some in the archives.

7. Its a big project. Expensive. Can you make a small scale proof of concept? Tiny house sized? I'm sure you'd learn a lot and avoid some expensive mistakes in the full-sized version.


I look forward to more as you develop you plans.

Way more to write but will start with the link to my solar collector that is basically an enhnaced trombe wall.  Will try and get back to the rest later.

enhanced trombe wall.