Leon Werdinger

Nice.  That's more ventilation than mine will have.  I just have one 3" diameter intake and one 3" diameter outtake.  

That's exactly what I needed to know.  Thanks!  

There might be some advantages to having a bend that have to do with avoiding some obstacles, but what I'm trying to figure out if having a 45º or 90º bend in the intake vent pipe will have any negative effect on the flow of the ventilation air.  Thanks.

Thanks for your reply.  Again, my specific question it'd be ok to have a bend in the intake vent.

Looking for advice on root cellar venting.  Building a 10x10 concrete & concrete block root cellar that’ll be fully underground except for the door.  Have all the walls up, French drain installed around the perimeter and partially backfilled.  Will be building forms for a cement roof in a few days, then pouring the roof, building a door and finishing backfilling.  My question concerns ventilation.  Will be installing a vent vertically through the roof in one corner (it’ll probably end up being about 4-5’ tall) and on the opposite corner I have a hole for the intake vent just above the floor.  It’ll take apx. 10’ of pipe (for the intake vent), run horizontally through the backfill, to reach daylight.  Would it effect the ventilation if I curved the intake vent 45º or 90º either horizontally or vertically to reach daylight sooner?  
Thanks!

Thanks Matt.

Leaning towards going with a 6/12 roof to minimize snow accumulation.  Reckon light will be more at premium in the winter, so even if that's not the most efficient angle for light in general it should be better than having snow block a lot of light.  The roof will be polycarb and there will also be a fair amount of vertical glass glazing in the walls.

Also, I might try the Swedish Skirt method since the foundation's still exposed. Might be able to get a bunch of partial pieces of ICF, cut the middle plastic brackets off and use the foam for insulating the foundation and those wings that angle into the ground. It'll obviously be more labor intensive than buying full sheets of rigid foam but the price and the environmental impact will sure be less.  Any thoughts on that?

Also curious to know if installing a heat exchange (GAHT)system will be worth it considering:
I'm done with heavy equipment in the area and not sure if the existing trenches are deep enough and long enough to make it work. Here's the data: The greenhouse will have apx. 1600 cubic feet of interior space. There's 25' of trench on the exterior of the north wall that's 4' below grade. Was planning on putting the French drain down there but could possibly add heat exchange tubes down there before backfilling also (see any reason why not?). If so, the tube could probably be doubled back on itself which would give another 25' of length. From there it could run along the trench outside the east wall, which is another 15', though only 2' below grade. From there it could run out a 15' trench (under a berm) that the French drain will run out. There will probably be around 3' of fill over that. So if that last 15' run is double with the pipe coming back to the greenhouse that would add another 15'. So the total would be roughly 25 + 25 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 95', with about half of that being 4' under grade and the other half about 2-3' under. Being in zone 5a the frost likely goes deeper than at your place. Is there some kind of equation to figure out if this would provide enough of a heat exchange? (The photos show the trench along the north wall and the trench through the berm that the French drain will run out to.)
Thanks.

Thanks much Jay!  

Your suggestions to fill the blocks fully and to add rigid insulation to the front exterior make a lot of sense.  

My question about the outtake vent was too vague.  What I meant was whether it'd be better to have it come out of the roof or an upper wall.  (Either way, I was planning on having it on the opposite corner from the intake vent.)   So glad you mentioned having the intake vent travel through soil for a ways before entering the structure - seems like a great idea and I should be able to do that fairly easily.

BTW - the environment here isn't very wet.  Apx. 18" precip./year.  And fortunately there's still a bit of a downhill slope in front of the cellar for water to be drained to.

Thanks again.  Any other advice would be appreciated.

Would really appreciate advice on finishing up a root cellar in a fairly cold climate in the mountains of Northeast Oregon.  The photo shows the current situation.  

Planning on finishing the walls with cement blocks.  Would you recommend coating them (and the foundation) with some sort of waterproofing, and if so, what?  I assume it’s recommended to fill all the holes in the blocks with concrete, not just the ones with rebar, eh?  

Was planning on putting in a French drain around the base of the foundation but noticed that a book about root cellars recommends putting a French drain 2-3’ below the post-fill ground level.  Think I should put in both?  

For the floor I was planning on adding gravel up to the level of the top of the footer.  I tried to slope the base of the floor so that it drains to the corner where I dug a hole under the foundation for a drain pipe (the hole is visible in the lower right side of image).  How’s that sound to you?  And would you recommend adding geotextile fabric under the gravel?

One big question is what to do for a roof.  Yes, haven’t planned that out yet.  Would like to avoid the expense of a concrete roof but not sure if there are good alternatives that can hold two feet or so of soil above.  And was thinking that it be good to have rafters running from back to front with an overhang on the front to keep water off of the front wall.  (Can also have the center rafters long enough to make a little porch over the door and support it with posts.)  Would using L-block on the top course of the wall in order to help facilitate roof construction?

Do you recommend the use rigid insulation somewhere in this project?

There’s an intake vent hole already in place (visible to the right of the door opening).  What do you recommend for the out-take vent?

Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Thanks Matt!   Curious - I like your design more than the shed design on aesthetic grounds but what makes that design better for a greenhouse on practical terms?