[Strawbale] Michele's planned attached greenhouse

[Michele O'Malley]

Wow, a lot of suggestions. I'm having a hard time visualizing the Trombe (thanks for correcting my spelling) wall flipped and used as a floor probably because all these ideas are still fairly new to me and I'm trying to wrap my brain around the orginal concepts. My interest in AGS was to try to heat a below grade basement . There will be about 4 ft below ground and 4 feet about. This will help keep the SB plaster high and dry and give me a view of the Tetons over some pesky aspen trees, on someone elses property of course. Would an about grade greenhouse still be able to heat a below grade basement? How might I do this if its possible.


Ms. Michele M. O'Malley Lab Manager Systems Neuroscience Institute Univ. Pittsburgh (412) 648-9064 MICHOMD at hotmail.com

----------------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:07:37 -0500
> To: strawbale at listserv.repp.org
> From: ArchiLogic at yahoo.ca
> Subject: Re: [Strawbale] Michele's planned attached greenhouse
> 
> On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:04:26 -0500, Michele O'Malley <michomd at hotmail.com>  
> wrote:
> 
> > I'm thinking a couple windows, a slider, and at least 1 Trembley wall  
> > (maybe 2), and a greenhouse off the south kitchen wall with some other  
> > wall system there and a door leading out to it. The rest of the house  
> > would be SB.
> 
> Michele;
> 
> I think that the attached greenhouse would yield a bigger bang for the  
> buck than any PAHS or AGS system.
> 
> There is really no need for the common wall between the greenhouse and  
> main living space to be SB.  I think that would be more beneficial to make  
> it a honking big,fat high-mass wall.
> In all likelihood, that common wall would be punched full of openings for  
> doors and windows anyway so that it'd likely be 50% or more glass anyway.
> 
> And I think that the Trombe wall would be best flipped 90 degrees and used  
> as a direct-gain floor, and then reduce that glass area (to reduce losses  
> during non-gain periods) and use that glass for views and light as well as  
> direct solar gains.
> 
> The idea of the above is that everything does at least double-duty.
> 
> ie An attached greenhouse, in addition to (i) being a solar furnace for  
> the rest of the house, (ii) provides a thermal buffer zone for the portion  
> of exterior wall that it encloses, (iii) provides a place to extend the  
> growing season for plants (and soon-to-be plants) (iv) provides a place to  
> dry laundry using solar power instead of electricity or fossil-fuel )(v)  
> provides a great place to hang out nekkid in winter etc.
> 
> PAHS and AGS OTOH,are one trick ponies whose tricks are in large part,  
> illusion, especially when attempted in Cold Climate regions. (Yes, they've  
> been tried by SB builders in Cold Climates and "no" I've not yet heard of  
> one that has performed as hoped/hyped.)
> 
> Quite frankly (and surely too), I seriously doubt that any PAHS of AGS  
> components would contribute any more than 3% (if that) to reducing the  
> auxiliary heating load of a home that is insulated and air-sealed to the  
> levels that the old R-2000 standard used to require.
> 
> -- 
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at chaffY a h o o  dot  c a >
> manually winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply
> 
> 
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