Hello from Romania!
I am trying to become self-sufficient on a small piece of land that has a fairly big whole on what I later concluded must have been a very long time ago a small creek. I needed myself more soil for around the property and as I dug, after three/four feet I ran into sand which continued more or less up to 12 feet down to the clay of the first water bed so (with so much sand around) my hopes for creating there a (15x60 feet) lake in that location where shattered.
Not thinking of another use for the whole I am now considering building there a large basement (15x30 feet and 9 feet deep) to use as temporary living quarters - on top if which I will one day build the house. Even so, I would not get enough soil to change the slope around the upcoming basement – to be safe from water infiltration - so I want to continue the basement (N-S) with a (15-30 feet) greenhouse that would be partially in-ground (three feet).
I was thinking that I could chiefly use it to grow plants and vegetables in container (perhaps on tables) and I want to give a slope to the arched part of the greenhouse to more easily collect hot air to sometimes heat the house/basement and/or store the heat underground the greenhouse (through some kind of system) for the cold winter nights. This in fact would be an exchange of air as I could also draw heat from the basement (another reason for going nine feet high with it – larger volume) during winter and maybe even cold air in the spring (until airing it during the hot summer days using conventional heat-release methods).
It is a huge investment for me; I have not found sufficient information on the subject so your observations would be of great help. I will try to formulate some questions but feedback in any format would be much appreciated.
1. With so much sand around me, a 10/12 feet slope and conventional wall protection measures will I be safe from water infiltration if there are only three feet (for water to travel) between my basement floor and the clay soil (I will of course collect all roof rainwater so no pressure from that direction)?
2. Maximum temperatures here are from -5F to 105F (-20 to 40 Celsius). Under extreme circumstances I guess I could use some heating system but otherwise, do you consider that having an almost equal volume of air for exchange I would be able to keep the greenhouse above freezing level simply by drawing air from the basement. (I am thinking that I get a good start from the heat released by going three/four feet in ground with the greenhouse.)
3. While quite expensive, would it make a significant difference if I were to ad a one inch of foam insulation to the concrete walls exterior of the greenhouse? (I am already planning to protect from water those walls.) How about doubling the covering sheet of the greenhouse?
Some other less obvious bonuses would be:
- bring soil on the property at the same level.
- recycling some of the stone mixed with sand to serve for mixing my own cement.
- recycling lots of sand to improve soil permeability in my garden.
- recycling and circulating the preheated greenhouse air in a system that would further heat it and fuel the solar water heater and a sizable food dehydrator.
Once again, I would greatly appreciate your answers and suggestions.
Thank you kindly,
Gerula
