Subject: Re: passive solar greenhouse/strawbale

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:05:07 -0500 (EST)

In a message dated 11/7/97 10:27:58 PM, you wrote:

>
>I think the reference to the straw bale passive solar greenhouse was 
>excellent, I have recently developed an interest in straw bale 
>construction and hope to use it to build my own house/greenhouse, I found 
>a very nice new book about straw bale construction at our public 
>library.  
>
>I once read that someone was using rabbits in their greenhouse, they 
>provide heat and fertilizer, rabbit manure is supposed to be usable 
>whithout composting (please correct me if I'm remembering this 
>incorrectly).  

Strawbale has its place, though I would be cautious in using it as a kneewall
in a solar greenhouse.  It might do for the west.  However greenhouses have
much higher biological activity and humidity than dwelling spaces, even run
dry, as they should be, in winter.  If someone has solved this, lets have the
details!

Rabbits are standard in greenhouses, along, of course, with Mollison's old
chestnut, the chicken coop/greenhouse.  We have also put greenhouses on barns
where animals contribute CO2 and manure for composting in exchange for some
thermal buffering and minor heating from attached greenhouses.  Generally
there are windows between the stalls and the greenhouse.  This could be done
better than we did--I came in late in the process and knew next to nothing
about the entire field at the time.  We were very, very successful at
anerobic composting of stall sweepings inside the greenhouse, and the CO2
bump really made a difference to the plants.  The last cutting of black
seeded simpson, for example, which was in a bed right over the first pile
(where stuff was originally deposited) had lettuce plants 2 to 3 feet across.
 (Lettuce is famous for liking to grow under glazing anyway.)  This was a
classic attached greenhouse, 60 degree slope of double-glazed Sunlite Premium
II, manual vents.  It was maybe a bit higher than it needed to be, but it ran
ok and that gave us way more width.

Generally in our designs, we put rabbits in cages under the north battery of
beds with the externall air intake going right into the rabbit areas to give
them first shot at cooling air in the summer (and also sweeping their CO2 up
to the plants.)
As I said before, we have plans for one of these which also includes fish
tanks which serve as partial fencing for a poultry operation.  For various
reasons, this is ok with a large structure, like a barn, but you couldn't
cramm all those functions usefully into an attached unit on a hous which is
ideally 12 feet wide.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  Next live training:  Paraguay, Sept. 1998. Internships
available. Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL
32192 USA  [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.

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From: Andrew Erb <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 12:28:07 -0600 (CST)

The web page (if you want to find it do a search on solar strawbale
greenhouse) to which I referred has a description of how the
straw bale greenhouse used earth tubes to preheat or precool air depending
on the season which also dehumidified the air.  It also has an eloquent
peice on how the use of solar greenhouses will allow people to grow their
own food and reduce the impact on the earth from all the transportation
currently used to transport food. I would be interested to see the design
plans for this greenhouse.  Also, in reading the book "The Strawbale
House" I have learned that you can use a variety of plasters to put over
the bales, creating the surface of the walls, probably even concrete which
could be water proofed, thus reducing or eliminating the concern about
humidity causing the bales to decompose.  If anyone is interested in
strawbale construction get a copy of "The Strawbale House"  it has the
answers. 

Once again Dan H. Thanks for all the info on using rabbits/animals in 
greenhouses.

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From: Andrew Erb <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 12:28:07 -0600 (CST)