Greenhouse/shop design

Hi Yall,

I am in the planning phase of my shop and greenhouse and construction will start in the next couple of months. I am in central Mississippi in zone 8b.

The actual building will be 24' wide and 48' long. It will have a gabled roof. One gable end will face due south. This will be the greenhouse end. The greenhouse portion will be glazed on the east, south, and west walls with clear poly carbonate panels. The gabled roof of the greenhouse will also be clear. The overall floor space of the greenhouses will be 24' X 16". The North wall that separates the shop from the greenhouse will also be clear to let light into the shop. On this North wall will be a fish tank that is 20' long, 4' feet wide and 4' deep partially sunken into the ground so 2 to 3 feet stick out of the ground. I will install vents and fans to move heat in the spring, summer, and fall.

The shop that attaches to the greenhouse will have the north and west walls sided with solid panels. The east wall will be clear also to let in light. The roof will be insulated metal. The shop will be 24'X32". The overall height of the building will be 10' sides and about a 14' gable.  

The greenhouse portion will serve to start seeds in the winter as well as house some citrus trees during our cold months. The trees will be in large containers that can be placed outside in the spring. The fish tank will be for fun (love running water) and to use to water the plants. Rain catchment into IBC's will serve to refill the fish tank as needed. This shop/greenhouse will be in the center of our garden and orchard in our back yard.

Do you guys see any major flaws with this design?

Thanks,

Greg

Crude drawings not to scale but hopefully you get the idea.

What's your plan for the warm months?
Or do you have warm months where you are?

Auto vent of some sort, fans, and shade cloth for the roof. Heat in summer is a much bigger deal than cold in winter. 90 to 100 deg days with 100 % humidity is the norm.  You would think it would be raining at 100% humidity but on no.  Lol.  Heat in summer is a concern. I saw in another post where someone in Louisiana painted part of there roof with white paint to stop some of the heat so that may be an option.

I may should run the metal out a little further so the fish tank is shaded through spring summer and fall.

There are various ways to limit solar input in the summer.

One idea is to get a piece of 40% greenhouse shade cloth that you can wind up and down to cover the glazed part of the roof and/or the glazed south wall.

Depending on what kind of glazing you use, you may get some "sanding" effects from the shade cloth laying on the glazing and wind, etc.  This will not hurt the plants any, but it may look bad if you have super clear rigid glazing.

Hi Greg.  A good discussion of the greenhouse aspect of your plan is already underway here.  I’ve got a greenhouse, but in very different climate conditions and latitude from your situation.  So I’ll leave it to others here to consider that topic with you.

Multi-purpose shops are an interest of mine, though.  I live on a homestead and sheltered shop space has been something absolutely required - same for every homestead I’m acquainted with.  I’ve been contemplating a consolidation of three “shop” areas I’ve got on my place: One heated (but too small) where I do my handyman stuff (electrical, bench-carpentry, etc) & some of my woodworking.  Another roofed-over, but open-air, where I have building lumber stored and my table saw is located.  The third one (roofed-over, open-air) where I’ve got welders, a metal assembly table, vises, grinders, compressor & a sandblaster etc - where I do small-engine equipment work and other mechanical & metal construction or repair work.

In collecting ideas for a new shop, I’ve created a Pinterest board showing shop layouts and photos or video tours - with links to online articles, videos, and forum threads.  I’ll mention again that these pertain to mixed shops, not "dream shops" for fancy woodworking or for working on motorcycles or hot rods.

https://www.pinterest.com/joelbc/mixed-shops/  You need to get a Pinterest membership to fully peruse the board, but this is easy to do & in my experience there's no objectionable involvement.

Just thought the board might help you with your planning.

I think you should continue the insulated metal roof over the greenhouse.  The light entering the roof would only benefit entering the gable end of the shop during the winter sun angle and would cause too much overheating in the summer.  I like your decision to let the light in from the east. morning sun is usually desirable most of the year. but evening sun is a killer in the summer. You wil probably wand to plan on a shade for the west side of the greenhouse for the summer. You want your greenhouse to be cooler than outside during the summer for cool loving greens. The fish tank should be a great heat sink to keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Also consider being able to draw cool air from under the ground or building.

Hans Quistorff wrote:I think you should continue the insulated metal roof over the greenhouse.  The light entering the roof would only benefit entering the gable end of the shop during the winter sun angle and would cause too much overheating in the summer.  I like your decision to let the light in from the east. morning sun is usually desirable most of the year. but evening sun is a killer in the summer. You wil probably wand to plan on a shade for the west side of the greenhouse for the summer. You want your greenhouse to be cooler than outside during the summer for cool loving greens. The fish tank should be a great heat sink to keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Also consider being able to draw cool air from under the ground or building.

Thanks,  I see you are in Washington.  I lived in Portland when I was a teen. Love that part of the world.  

I considered the idea of metal all the way across the greenhouse but was a little unsure of there being enough light. I think you are probably right though.  I saw for the first time the other day how someone was using piping under their greenhouse to heat and cool.  I will look into it further.  

Greg B Smith wrote:Auto vent of some sort, fans, and shade cloth for the roof. Heat in summer is a much bigger deal than cold in winter. 90 to 100 deg days with 100 % humidity is the norm.  You would think it would be raining at 100% humidity but on no.  Lol.  Heat in summer is a concern. I saw in another post where someone in Louisiana painted part of there roof with white paint to stop some of the heat so that may be an option.

I may should run the metal out a little further so the fish tank is shaded through spring summer and fall.

I'm north of MS, in Colrain, Western MA, where I think about shading the South glazed side of the home I will build with grape and kiwi vines during the hot months. In late Autumn I will prune them back, allowing in winter sunlight.

Brian
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I would agree with solid roofing over at least half of the greenhouse. The fish tank and shop wall have no need for direct solar gain in summer. I would absolutely make the metal roofing white in color to bounce as much heat back as possible. When my parents built our house in the late '50s they put black mineral surface roll roofing on the (ranch-style) roof. It got hot inside on sunny summer days. As a teenager I helped my father reroof part of the roof with white roll roofing, and following summers were distinctly cooler inside. Modern standards of insulation would reduce the starkness of that effect, but it would still be there.

I would say that a 10' wall height in the greenhouse is wasted material and heated volume, but a hotter climate plus citrus trees in containers makes it not unreasonable.

With the original discussion here being about seven years old, I wonder what you ended up doing, and how it has worked for you. Do you have any photos?