B Beeson

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.

No till from scratch, meaning un-prepared new ground, as Nathanael asked?

Tough, but still possible. I see from other posts that you are located in central Illinois, so you still have some time before last frost. Corn planted in cold soil will not germinate well, so until then, you can start your lasagna bed.

1. Lots of cardboard and newspaper, much overlapped, many layers. Don't worry about roots penetrating this. Once its wet, and worms start working on it, roots will get through quite easily.
2. Good finished compost or fresh vermicompost if you have it, with worms and worm eggs included (worms love cardboard). This will feed the soil organisms that are needed to jumpstart your crop. Remember your main crop is good soil, not corn or whatever you plant on top.
3. Water it down, get the cardboard layer good and wet, but don't wash away the compost.
4. Add whatever lasagna layers you have available, make them thin so there are no matted grass clipping layers, for example. Build it up as high as possible. 2 feet is not too much. Avoid material with lots of weed seeds.
5. Keep it moist, dig down to the cardboard layer to test, water before it dries out. The top can be dry, it protects the lower layers.
6. When its warmer, scratch shallow grooves to plant in, at your preferred row spacing. Plant your corn, cover with more compost. Water.
7. Depending on your birds/deer/groundhogs, etc, you may need temporary protection. The birds in my yard love to watch me plant and then swoop in to carefully extract each and every seed. They are smart! and they remember where every seed was planted. I also plant some sacrificial, fast germinating annuals like radishes and arugula. Birds may get some, but they will hide the corn shoots for a few days.
8. Sprinkle a very thin layer of fresh grass clippings on top. This camouflages the corn shoots, repeat every few days.
9. Add more lasagna compost as the corn grows, instead of hilling it up.
10. Maybe protect it from wind in your location?

A new lasagna bed, depending on your weed pressure and varieties, may need some weeding for the first year, but the loose compost makes that easy. Just pull it out early before it gets established. Grasses, especially - they have underground reserves of sugar in their roots to feed the growth of new shoots. If you get them quick, those reserves get depleted. If you leave them a few weeks, they can photosynthesize enough to become unstoppable. The farmers footprints (and attention) are the best fertilizer (and weedkiller).

Its all about the soil temps.

Carrots need at least 45degF, 65 is best...

Nebraska soil temps are more like 34degF according to https://www.weather.gov/ncrfc/lmi_soiltemperaturedepthmaps

If you have a lot of seed to spare, go ahead, it will wait for warmer temps. You can speed up the warming with cloches, clear plastic, temporary cold frames, etc. The only danger is seed will rot in cold water-saturated soil before it can germinate so factor in your soil moisture and rain forecast.

Garlic can be planted anytime from August to April in your climate. You probably have cold-acclimated phenotypes, but some extra mulch before hard freezes are a good idea. My elephant garlic got a little freeze damage on the outer leaves, Music hardneck in a more protected spot survived 10degF unscathed.

My garden will attract every herbivore in the neighborhood to come feast on any early plantings, so I have to cover with wire cages weighted on the edges with rocks and an apron of wire 1/2 meter out to prevent groundhogs digging under.

I bought an EGo self-propelled mower many years ago. Got good use out of it. Definitely a huge improvement over smelly, dangerous, expensive, depleting fossil fool mowers. Over time, the self propelled mechanism started making awful noises. Still worked, but worrisome, so I eventually just pushed with muscle power only. Later, the sensor that tells it something is binding the blade and shuts it down for safety... that sensor stopped working correctly, mower would not stay on unless the blade was extremely loose, almost free-spinning. Not a good safety condition. Took it for repair to a certified EGo repair shop, they charged almost $100 to tell me the cost of repair was almost the same a buying a new mower.

Having already invested in other EGo eco-system tools and batteries, I got a new push mower, despite my misgivings about long-term reliability of that sensor. So far, after 4 years, still good. I do try to avoid too much jolting and shocking over bumps, but I have a very rocky soil, so I just go slow and take it easy.

I'm impressed that your Kobalt has lasted so long. My 1st EGo mower lasted about 12 years, but the problems started after about 5 years, and I spent the last 4 years of that babying the stupid sensor issue. I was mowing about 3/4 of an acre in Texas.

If I may ask, how big of an area are you mowing with the Kobalt?

Remy, your inputs helped to clarify some major problems with this calculator.

I put in your numbers and got similar results (combining my house dimensions with your materials and thicknesses).

I added a second layer of 8 inch styrofoam on all surfaces, just to see how much that would improve things.... NO improvement!

The second layer option is completely non functional. This explains why I had such unrealistic results the first time. I had 1/2" sheathing plus standard 3.5" mineral wool in the wall cavities, and 1/2" drywall plus 8" mineral wool fill in the attic, but the calculator ignores the insulation layers. Reversing the order, insulation in the first layer, I got very good results. The 2nd layer doesn't matter at all. Replacing the 1/2" drywall with another 36" of insulation = identical numbers.

...........

A separate issue...  in your inputs, you have 35" of concrete in the attic, and 40" of concrete in the lower floor. Is this accurate? You have zero insulation above your top floor ceiling? If so, that is your first priority. Also, in a seismic zone, concrete ceilings, unless massively reinforced and engineered for shearing forces, are a death trap, so I agree with Cristobal that we must have some communication/conversion issues. I'd be happy to switch to metric if that helps.

..........

I see that Cristobal has typed faster than me, but the point about the non-functional 2nd layer is important.

It definitely treats the unheated space under the floor as if it is equal to outside temp. I adjusted by calculating separately for the actual crawlspace temp to get the "heat loss through floor", then the true outside temp for the walls, ceiling, windows, etc.

Another limitation is that it treats horizontal, vertical up, and vertical down heat losses exactly the same, but they are very different. Heat rises, its really, really good at going up, so attic insulation and sealing are most important for winter heat loss.

Within walls, preventing horizontal convective loops and sealing gaps are more important than straight R-values. Obviously doesn't apply to thick adobe or masonry walls as you and Remy have.

Cristobal,

you said:

"Your calculated heat loss of 31 kW is quite large"

I agree.
I plugged in reasonable values for my house, heated entirely by electric heat pump, and got impossible numbers. Way higher than physically possible, given the capacity of my heat pump; and far higher than the observed usage.

I suspect user error, or a calculator that is not suited to USA building styles, or just a poor model of heat loss. I wouldn't rely solely on that heat loss calculator to design a system.

Daytime raccoon attack...

Is it too late to check for rabies in the raccoon?

For other vehicles I've had computer problems with, the simple fix has often been to disconnect the computer from all electrical supply, reconnect, and reboot.

It may seem stupid, but it works sometimes!

Be careful around high voltage DC power supply, high voltage batteries, and all cables that are very thick or have dangerous colors and warnings attached. High voltage DC will kill you fast. Look in your manual to find the safety disconnects.

Maybe try granulating your styrofoam using a woodchipper/leaf shredder, then adding it to a foamed cement aircrete as a lightweight aggregate substitute.

https://manabouttools.com/best-aircrete-recipe/