The Chinese greenhouse Design and build a low-cost, passive solar greenhouse
Book - 2020
"The Chinese Greenhouse is the only complete guide to designing, building, and operating high-performance, earth-sheltered, solar-heated, intelligently glazed, and insulated passive greenhouses, allowing you to grow a variety of vegetables year-round--even in cold climates--in soil or aquaponic grow beds."--
Saved in:
- Subjects
- Published
-
Gabriola Island, BC, Canada :
New Society Publishers
[2020]
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Other Authors
- ,
- Item Description
- Includes index.
- Physical Description
- viii, 229 pages : color illustrations, color portrait ; 23 cm
- ISBN
- 9780865719293
- 1. My Introduction to Chinese Greenhouses
- Early Experiences with Greenhouse Growing
- Building a Four-Season Greenhouse
- The Chinese Greenhouse
- Meeting Dr. Sanjun Gu and The Real Chinese Greenhouse
- What's this Book about?
- 2. What's Wrong with Conventional Greenhouses?
- Shortcomings of Conventional Greenhouses
- Conclusion
- 3. What Makes the Chinese Greenhouse so Special?
- A Closer Look
- The Advantages of Earth-Sheltering
- How Earth-Sheltening Actually Works
- A Brief History of the Chinese Greenhouse
- Evolutionary Changes to Chinese Greenhouse Design
- A Chinese Farming Success Story
- Do Chinese Greenhouses Really Work?
- Chinese Greenhouses and All-Season Greenhouses
- Conclusion
- 4. Building a Chinese Greenhouse: Site Selection, Excavation, and Drainage
- Above Ground or Underground: That's the Question
- Compensating Strategies
- Selecting and Excavating Your Site
- Getting it Right: Proper Orientation
- Proper Drainage: Protecting Your Greenhouse from Water Infiltration
- Water, Water, Everywhere, and You can be Sure It Will Find a Way In
- Conclusion
- 5. Thermal Mass, Framing, Glazing, and Insulation
- Thermal Mass
- Framing Your Greenhouse
- Roof Slope: What's the Optimum Angle?
- Glazing or Plastic
- Insulation
- How Much Glazing do you Need?
- Conclusion
- 6. Improving Performance: Daytime Internal Heat Banking
- Daily Internal Heat Banking
- Additional Considerations
- Conclusion
- 7. Improving Performance: Daily Heat Banking with a Solar Hot Air System
- Using a Solar Hot Air Collector to Bank Heat
- Where Can I Purchase a Solar Hot Air Collector?
- Mounting a Solar Hot Air Collector
- How does a Solar Hot Air System Work?
- What's the Proper Tilt Angle?
- Mounting a Solar Hot Air Collector on a Rack
- Controlling Hot Air Systems
- Build Your Own Solar Hot Air Collector
- Conclusion
- 8. Improving Performance: Daily Heat Banking with Solar Hot Water Systems
- What Is a Solar Hot Water System?
- Drainback Solar Hot Water Systems
- Pump-Driven Glycol-Based Solar Hot Water Systems
- Which System Should You Use?
- Evacuated Tube Solar Hot Water Collectors
- Installing a Solar Hot Water System
- Conclusion: How about Long-Term Heat Storage?
- 9. Improving Performance: Long-Term (Seasonal) Heat Banking
- Long-term Heat Banking: A New Idea?
- LongTerm or Seasonal Heat Banking
- Heat Banking in Earth-Sheltered Buildings like the Chinese Greenhouse
- Active Annual Heat Storage
- Which Way to Go?
- Daily Internal Heat Recovery System
- Solar Hot Air System
- Seasonal Heat Storage with a Solar Hot Water System
- Conclusion: An Invitation to Share
- 10. Battling the Heat: Summertime Production
- Summer Options
- Retiring the Greenhouse for the Summer
- Continuing to grow in a Chinese Greenhouse in the Summer
- Quit Bugging Me
- Conclusion
- 11. Getting it Right: Designing Climate Batteries
- Climate Battery Design and Construction
- Climate Batteries and Cooling
- Conclusion
- 12. Supplementing Solar Input: LED Lighting
- Do You Need to Supplement Lighting?
- What Kind of Lights Work Best?
- Understanding Light
- Understanding PAR
- When do you Need Supplemental Lighting?
- DLI: One More Thing About Lighting
- Conclusion
- Determining Daily Light integral
- 13. Building My Chinese Greenhouse: A Pictorial Documentary
- Site Selection and Preparation
- Building the Thermal Mass Wall
- Building Rammed Earth Tire Walls
- Earth-Cooling Tube Installation
- Waterproofing Mass Walls
- Framing the Greenhouse
- Installing the Roof
- Mudding the Walls
- Exterior Insulation and Backfilling
- Insulating the Interior Walls and Roof
- Installing Siding
- Revegetating the Berm
- We Made It!
- Index
- About the Author
- About New Society Publishers