Sure, they reduced the heating bill. But the tradeoff is that they can't throw stones anymore.
Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
131–140 of 232 posts
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#132I wonder how they control humidity inside the home and prevent mildew/mould? The air in the greenhouse would be very humid all year round I would have thought?
I am a little confused about this fear people have of mold and mildew in their houses. Up until very recently people's houses weren't far off from the outside environment. Generally in the summer the best they did was keep the rain out and provide some shade. Houses weren't uninhabitable mold pits back then, why would they be now?
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#133I always thought this would be an interesting experiment to do this over a whole neighbourhood
There was a Stephen King story about that. Turns out it leads to the collapse of law and order and lots of people die.
Wasn't it also the theme of one of the Simpson's movies? (Probably based off the Stephen King novel?)
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#134I wonder if this has a negative effect on the amount of fresh air that they get
Fresh air is created by plants and CO2 is taken from the air by plants, a greenhouse has plants so... probably a good amount of oxigen there Molds are a problem and there is another, for rodents, mosquitos and cockroaches this is a dream made true. Spiders can take mosquitos easily, but the other two will need a plan
> Fresh air is created by plants and CO2 is taken from the air by plants
Plants can be net CO2 consumers, but they burn O2 to CO2 just like you. Tropical forests are net CO2 producers for most of the day, except for a few hours around noon, but that's enough to become net consumers averaged over the day. Occasionally someone fills their room with plants, and then puzzles over having high CO2 levels.
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#135I wonder how they control humidity inside the home and prevent mildew/mould? The air in the greenhouse would be very humid all year round I would have thought?
I am a little confused about this fear people have of mold and mildew in their houses. Up until very recently people's houses weren't far off from the outside environment. Generally in the summer the best they did was keep the rain out and provide some shade. Houses weren't uninhabitable mold pits back then, why would they be now?
There is some additional risk with modern homes being much better sealed than old homes which always had some air moving through it. If you don't have a proper HVAC system and use like electric heaters instead of forced air, humidity levels can build up and slowly absorb into materials if you don't have enough airflow, and you likely won't notice, unless maybe the dew point gets high enough that all of a sudden every surface in your house is damp. It is less of a concern in places without high humidity but some swampy areas can be 90% humidity for weeks or months at a time and then all of a sudden you got mold behind your walls because some idiot decided to seal up every seam with plastic or glue or whatever other impermeable material.
Part of this is a misunderstanding of building techniques that block airflow, ive seen numerous houses with all the roof vents plugged up to "save heat", walls with plastic sheeting on the inside wall creating air/moisture traps, or people replacing air-permeable house wrap with solid sheet plastic, foam and glue on every board and seam with a sealed up and moist crawl space underneath, ect. It is fairly easy to get mold in a humid place with a sealed home and no forced air, and nearly impossible to kill it all without tearing out all the drywall in the house. If everything was done right, shouldn't be a problem, but people are far more likely to pay for size and speed over quality materials or careful quality labor.
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#136Very very cool.
How would this fare in the summer months?
I.E. How would this work in the US Midwest where summers are very hot and winters are pretty cold?
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but ventilating the house itself plus the surrounding greenhouse is much more expensive than just ventilating the house itself. Reason being that the volume of air is much larger.
I'm not an expert, but all greenhouses I've personally seen have natural ventilation with vents high up (such as at the peak of the roof) and near the ground. The greenhouse effect makes the air inside a lot warmer than outside. This reduces its density, and it becomes buoyant and spills out the roof vent. There may also be fans, but you can get some ventilation for free (energy-wise).
You can see the open vents on the ridge in the first photo.
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Nordics, houses (that aren't very old) don't get new air through windows; the air exchange is through a central ventilation system in and out, and modern houses have a heat exchanger to collect the heat from outgoing air and transfer it to incoming air. (The need to cool down residential houses is extremely rare). At least in Finland, newish office houses typically don't even have windows that can be opened; t…
> At least in Finland, newish office houses typically don't even have windows that can be opened. That's because the costs for heating of the building during winter are way cheaper than a better thermal isolation of windows and a good ventilation system combined.
I think you express it the wrong way round. The windows cannot be opened, because that way they can be made better for thermal isolation, which is obviously a major design criteria in cold climate.
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Nordics, houses (that aren't very old) don't get new air through windows; the air exchange is through a central ventilation system in and out, and modern houses have a heat exchanger to collect the heat from outgoing air and transfer it to incoming air. (The need to cool down residential houses is extremely rare). At least in Finland, newish office houses typically don't even have windows that can be opened; t…
Which part can't be done here?
Not sure what you mean, but the reason for sealed windows is that building code mandates all ventilation through heat exchangers for energy efficiency, and having windows open would completely ruin the designed airflow.
Re: Swedish Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home
#140I wonder how they control humidity inside the home and prevent mildew/mould? The air in the greenhouse would be very humid all year round I would have thought?
I suspect noise level might be quite high too, especially with children.
Still a cool house though, I like their water treatment