Tim Skufca

It would be great to get an independent analysis of The Land, especially the WOFATIS: what was the hoped for end result------- what was accomplished------what is the plan forward.

the only time I had a problem with moisture from an in-floor radiant heat/cool system was when I ran cold water through the floor to cool the house. Where there were exposed pipes the pipes would sweat from the condensation. All that was required was to insulate those few pipes. It certainly is nice to close the windows when there is smoke in the air from forest fires, and still have a chilled floor!

be inclusive, not so exclusive.......think worldly, not merely The Land. Answers have to address urban populations.

We are just completing a house remodel with a full basement. The walls for the basement are gabion baskets. I even got an engineer to sign off on the design (in Missoula), in order to get a building permit. It's hugely labor intensive, but we accomplished the goal: minimal use of concrete. Anyone interested I very much am open to give tours.
Our standard Missoula stick-frame, 1940s home is now an all-electric, net-zero home. We have enough solar panels to heat and light the place - paying only $4 a month to NorthWestern Energy (for administration costs). This house in Missoula uses a ground-source heat-pump (using a well) and in-floor tubing.

Good luck with this project. I will come visit sometime this summer.

A few things;
- the sections do not represent the "sloped" walls of the trenches to "prevent cave ins"
- I still worry about the moisture needs of a greenhouse with this sort of round-log foundation
- hopefully you document these details, especially the wool insulation

cheers,
Tim

I LOVE this feature!!!

your existing WOFATIS have been working largely by how dry it is all maintained. Not so for a greenhouse that is designed to treat gray-water. Moisture will be a big problem. Consider using gabion baskets to encompass the log posts. Mechanically connect the log to the basket and fill with rocks. This will provide an avenue for moisture to escape, keeping the logs dry.
> I understand the cooling concept, but notice Oehler's design has an exit for hot air at summer peaks. This would be more important if the next point was considered
> the sun infiltration is limited by the wing walls (maybe open to the sun with a 120degree angle?). Consider angling the wing retaining walls to open more to the sun, including solar gain to the east and west - which would then have the difficulty of too much heat in the summer, thus the previous point
> gray-water needs wet-land plants to gobble up all the nutrients that are available. I have a design of 4 bathtubs that drain by gravity into each other. The gray-water is introduced into the top-most 1st tub of wet-land plants (full of pea-gravel) which then flows into the 2nd, and so forth. The end result should be very clean water (which can be safely discarded onto solidly frozen ground outside). The important calculation is to determine how much gray-water needs to be treated, keeping in mind that gray-water turns to stinky black-water in a matter of hours, so you cannot store gray-water - it must be 'immediately' treated.
> If you develop this huge infrastructure and have very little growing space, then the point might get lost. The sketches show a very insignificant growing area.
> I'm super excited about your project because I've had a gray-water treatment greenhouse concepts for over 10 years, but no money. Another consideration is buried barrels of water which can store the heat from the summer. Water is a fabulous material to hold and move heat.
>
> I'm way late to the design party, and maybe these points have been considered. If so, sorry for the interruption and I'm excited to see progress. I believe I saw a stretch-goal of adding devices to record the data, deep inside the build. I highly encourage this.