The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse

Lindsey Schiller studied conventional greenhouse design and management at the University of Arizona's Controlled Environmental Agriculture Center before delving deeply into solar greenhouse design. With co-author Marc Plinke, she founded Ceres Greenhouse Solutions to research, design and build energy-efficient year-round greenhouses. Lindsey has designed, toured and helped build hundreds of energy-efficient greenhouses spanning small residential structures to acre-size commercial facilities. Marc Plinke, an inventor-innovator with a PhD in engineering, started his career as a chemical and process engineer working for Gore Technologies. He later retrofitted his family's 1950's Boulder, CO ranch home into a net-zero-energy home, spurring a second career in green building design. Marc has spent the past decade applying his expertise in green building and engineering mindset to building better greenhouses, with the intention of enabling people to grow their own food sustainably, year-round.

Introduction Section I: The Big Picture 1. What Is a Solar Greenhouse? 2. Growing Indoors: History and Future Trends 3. Planning for the Greenhouse Section II: Designing and Building a Solar Greenhouse 4. Siting and Orientation 5. Controlling Light and Heat Gain: Glazing 6. Controlling Heat Loss: Insulation 7. Ventilation 8. Greenhouse Geometries 9. Greenhouse Construction Basics 10. Attached Greenhouses 11. Earth-sheltered Greenhouses Section III: Heating and Cooling Methods 12. Passive Thermal Mass 13. Using the Earth for Heat Storage 14. Solar Hot Water 15. Rocket Mass Stoves and Compost Heaters 16. Powering the Greenhouse Section IV: Growing in the Greenhouse 17. Creating the Greenhouse Environment 18. Aquaponics and Hydroponics Appendix 1: Temperature Ranges of Common Greenhouse Crops Appendix 2: Optimizing Glazing Angles Appendix 3: Supplemental Lighting Index About the Authors A Note About the Publisher