Bold2013-
You're very kind.
You'll be stuck getting what you pay for.
Bold2013-
You're very kind.
You'll be stuck getting what you pay for.
Since I looked for outdoor work that I really enjoyed, and also wrote and edited— equally absorbing— I didn't really experience the usual retirement thing: being done with a long confinement to a desk under close supervision.
My retreat from outdoor fieldwork has coincided with the aging process: I can no longer do the sort of risky, strenuous jobs that delighted me. I float the local river, walk the dog, cultivate the garden, refine my skill at cookery, etc. Designed and built a solar thermal mass greenhouse in 2009, and (at 8000 ft. in the Rockies) we eat ripe tomatoes year-round.
While I had some success at writing, it was never a great source of income, and I got worn out by the constant need for self-promotion and hustling. So– I started writing for fun— no agents, no contracts, no publishers, no publicists, no money involved— and posting stuff on the web under a pseudonym, short novels and stories, for thousands of readers. I always wanted to try mysteries, and have written four. Also a sci-fi novel and heaps of short stories. So I retired from the glamorous world of commercial publishing, but not from writing.
In all, a pretty good life, with more to come.
Last edited by Chip; November 21st, 2022 at 11:00 PM.
What's the night time temp at your place right now?
RE: Greenhouses.
I first ran across this guy: a retired postman in northwestern Nebraska that manages to grow oranges year round.
His thermal mass design is pretty ingenious, and the basis for a lot of versions available commercially now. I have a backhoe for my tractor, so the digging isn't a problem; but I don't like that it requires electricity to move the air through the pipes and plenum.
The one I'm considering is a geodesic design which uses water/solar as a thermal mass. Link
"A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."
Last night it was 20°F. The night before, -8°F. Before that -12°F. Lowest I've seen was -40°F. I lost a few tomatoes to air leaks.
It's small, 12'x12', so the thermal mass is limited. I dug below the frost line (about 1 m.) and laid 2" foamboard and reflectix bubble insulation. The footers were poured in foam-insulated forms. Then a layer of gravel for drainage and coarse sand. The radiant tubing (PEX) was laid out on a wire grid, then covered with more sand.
I found a salvage flat plate collector, mounted it for low winter sun, and plumbed a loop with PEX that runs through a 400 gal. stock tank under the floor, wrapped and topped with insulation.
A 20W PV panel drives a DC pump, pushing a 50% glycol mix through the coils. A second AC pump circulates the warm water from the tank (it can reach 120°F) through the PEX tubing under the floor. (Water is much more efficient for storing and circulating heat than air.) Coupling the PV panel to the DC pump means that when there's enough sun to heat the flat-plate collector, the pump starts working. When it clouds up or the sun is gone, the pump shuts off.
Aside from the beds, the floor is black pavers with a black rubber mat over the wood covering the stock tank. I mounted four big black tanks on the south-facing wall for more passive thermal mass, and a water supply for the plants. They get filled with a garden hose (no plumbing to freeze.)
The walls are 3-layer polycarbonate. The roof is 6-layer (R 3.8). When it's warm, the clerestory vents open automatically as do the low corner vents. When it's really hot, I use a small AC fan.
There are four quartz radiant lamps (from a patio heater) mounted on the ceiling to warm the foliage. For really low temps, I have a small electric heater on a separate breaker, and one of those little propane Buddy heaters in case the electricity blinks out.
Last edited by Chip; November 23rd, 2022 at 02:03 PM.
dneal (November 23rd, 2022)
Impressive. Way beyond my DIY skills.
And nothing to do with retirement….😂
Cool setup. I’ve thought about incorporating a rocket mass heater for winter temps.
"A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."
Being retired means I have the slack to enjoy the greenhouse and other pursuits, without getting up early to finish the chores and then roaring off to the day job.
Besides a good grasp of applied physics, the key to building a greenhouse is to start with your local climate. While it can get really cold here, it's also sunny: a dependable source of energy. The trick is to catch and store it. It's also windy, so I stick-built the frame, with a 12" ridge, to carry the snowload. Besides the heavy-duty frame, there are strap braces to keep it from racking with wind pressure (which wrecks those lightweight aluminum-framed kits around here.) The clerestory roof vents are aligned with the prevailing summer breeze, which draws the hot air out. Knowing the place, I was able to imagine what might work best.
It wouldn't be good in Ireland, too cloudy and wet. In Sitka, people build greenhouses mostly to keep the rain off. So you have to start with your conditions.
One of my aims was to make it as passive and self-regulating as possible: the coupling of the DC pump and collector, thermal pistons to open and close vents, a thermostat for the radiant ceiling heat, etc. So I don't have to dash out several times a day (and at midnight) to adjust things, or worry about spending the day in town.
If you've plenty of fuel (a woodlot?) a rocket mass setup could work, with a water heatsink for storage and a circulation pump or two on thermostats. Figuring out a good way of storing and distributing the heat would mean you didn't have to stoke the firebox constantly.
Obviously, this sort of problem-solving fascinates me.
Mid-Missouri here, which means a month of 100+ degree days (ventilation a must), and a month of single digits and maybe a week of below 0 (ambient temps). Everything else is manageable, but I also want it to be passive and self-regulating.
I've got plenty of wood, especially for a rocket mass heater, just from old oaks dropping limbs. I've thought about building one in the crawlspace, using the foundation vents for intake and exhaust. That's a lot of cob to haul through a hatch in the floor though.
For those interested, here's a pic with rough boundaries. Terrain slopes to the east-northeast. Fruit trees will go in the southwest corner. I've just got to figure out where to put the greenhouse. If it goes in the same area as the fruit trees (to maximize sunlight), I can't do anything electric (so the citrus in the snow guy's plan is out). The geodesic design is naturally wind resistant, and has a small solar panel for summer venting.
Attachment 73586
"A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."
Chip and dneal-
You design and construction skills are very impressive.
I've never sawn a straight line, made a square corner, or hung a level stringer.
Well done!
"A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."
That would be a case-by-case reckoning. I used recycled and salvage material where possible: about half the lumber came from old sheds that I tore down (pulling all those nails–ugh!) The flat-plate solar collector came from a salvage yard. Gravel came from a pile left over from a highway re-surfacing– guess there wasn't enough to be worth loading. The polycarbonate sheathing, aluminum moldings, plastic tanks, pavers, plumbing, fixtures, and fastenings were new.
I kept track of the cost. Set against the price of fresh produce and the fuel for a weekly 60-mile roundtrip to the nearest store, it paid for itself in nine years (2018). Since we have only 45 frost-free days, outdoor gardening's a rough proposition and frost-sensitive plants such as tomatoes, beans, cukes, peppers, and herbs can't be grown. The carbon cost of growing them elsewhere and transporting them here is considerable, and the quality is often poor. I'm also not keen on industrial agriculture in general.
Potatoes do fine outdoors, thank heavens.
Lovely taters
Bookmarks