Respond to above folks, thanks we are in a good spot to try to be creative. We have so much insulation from the earth that we heat all winter with 3-5 cords of larch we cut from the place. We’ve got a water source heat pump with coils in a natural pond, and it’s making me think about how to use more earth heat for the greenhouse
I have no problem digging, and I’ve got plenty of space for whatever we need. I’ll start a thread with design ideas and let you all dissect them.
The inspiration comes from the Greenhouse in the Snow guy, but our location doesn’t get as much light so we’ve got that to contend with. I’m north of 48 degrees, so even my south facing land doesn’t get lots of winter light.
12 Cords just for the greenhouse!!! Wow.
I’d love to see your rocket mass stoves
thomas rubino wrote:Hi Arthur;
Welcome to Permies!
North of Sandpoint and south of Naples, a very nice area of North Idaho.
We are practically neighbors... I live 28 miles over the Idaho line off Highway 200 in western Montana, east of Lake Pend Oreille.
So A berm house and three wood stoves sounds cool. I'm guessing you are spending lots of time cutting and splitting wood.
It sounds to me like you might want to learn about Rocket Mass heaters.
You can read all about them in our RMH forum.
We can also arrange a visit here if you would like, to see my two batchbox RMH stoves in action.
We keep our uninsulated greenhouse/ artist studio warm all winter with no fire at night.
Rocket Mass Heaters are beyond awesome when wood is your main or only source of heat.
Previously it took over 12 cords to keep the greenhouse above freezing and that included my night owl wife feeding the wood gobbler well past midnight and myself as a morning person out there at 5-6 am dumping in more wood.
Seemed like all I did was cut and split wood. Now with our RMH, we burn less than 5 cords to keep it nice and warm 24/7.
You might also be interested in checking out our solar / hydro system, we have been 100% off-grid since 1983.
