Green house idea

[KJbushway]

If you could create your own green home, what would it have.
Things you can include:
greenhouse for growing your own foods, but one of your own design.
windmill
solar panels
another way of generating clean energy
water consumption
etc.
would you have a single floor house or would you have a 2 floor, etc.
what would you add on to the house?

 

[Mr. B]

Mine would have one of those sealed, hot tub-sized nuclear reactors, electric utilities and maybe even a water well.

 

[Kestra]

I think it could be cool to somehow incorporate a garden/greenhouse type area in with the kitchen.

 

[Sky]

It would be a simple one. I'd grow tomatoes, chilies, herbs such as basil and oregano.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I would definitely have a windmill. I think they're cool. And I'd like to have a greenhouse. I'm not good at growing things or making my own food, but I think it would be a nice place to sit during the winter when it's too cold to sit outside.

And my perfect house would be two floors, built like a loft; that's my preferred home design.

 

[KJbushway]

Well, here is my idea for a greenhouse.
1. The house itself would be built out of scrap yard metals and recycled wood. I would have soy bean insulation. My lights would be those enviromental ones(can't spell the name). I would have a single floor house with an extended basement.
2. On the outside I would have copper rain gutters that would end in barrels. I would also have huge pool like collectors in the back about 15' diameter. I would have an inground square pool that is filled and filtered by that extra rain water. I would have three small windmills in the very back with adjustable solar panels on my roof.
3. In my extended basement I would have a huge circle growing room with circle lights at the very top, but they wouldn't be actually lights they would be made of a highly luminous glass with lighted fiber glass in them. I would have rows of different plants(rectangular plant bases) that would end in the middle with circle growing bases. Tomatoes would hang from the ceiling.
4. I would have a advanced air system. The room would have a huge fan that has both a perfect mixture of nitrogen and oxygen blowing in to it. Carbon Dioxide collected from people breathing in the house it cleaned of all dust and dirt and on a schedule would be pumped into the room.
5. I would also have an advanced way of bringing water to the plants. I would waste filter system kinda like a septic tank that traps the liquids but lets the solid go somewhere else.(that place then dissolves it by organic acid)The water pipe would go to a bin in the basement that filters it and transfers it to a bin on a heat plate. When the water starts to boils steam will be sucked into pipes that bring it into the growing room and cool it so it enters a water vapor that is spread around by the fan, when it cools it will be even among the plants, which gets them water. There will also be mists sticks that will give plants water by accurate amounts.
Thats my green home.
Please share your ideas.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ That would make a great Moonbase.

And I did forget to mention rain barrels. I would have a few of those.

 

[KJbushway]

Don't know about that.

 

[trekkiedane]

I'd have a freakishly big swimming pool to store heat from the summer sun in so I could use it to heat water (and the house) during the cold season.

My lights would be those enviromental ones(can't spell the name).

L-E-D

 

[KJbushway]

thank you, but those swirally ones.

 

[Finn]

I like what Kestra said about a greenhouse type area attached to the kitchen, perhaps merged with a breakfast nook.

 

[trekkiedane]

thank you, but those swirally ones.

Fluorescents, but that is ancient technology now -and (way) not as environmentally friendly (or long lived) as LEDs. (afaik some of the first industrially manufactured, widely available tubes were actually shown on the World's Fair in NY in 1939.)

I like what Kestra said about a greenhouse type area attached to the kitchen, perhaps merged with a breakfast nook.

Having the greenhouse type area be a hall-type area between the outdoors and the indoors of your house will actually save you a bundle in heating (in a cold type climate -like the one I happen to live in) and help you extend the warm season in both directions.

During, I think it was called; 'The Second Energy Crisis' (in the seventies) my parents installed not only a wood burning oven (what are they called? -you open them up and it's an open fireplace but when they're closed they are merely an 'oven' of sorts) but also a 30 m² doubleglazed extension to our living room, both of which were brilliant re-inventions of rather old-fashioned technologies.

 

[KJbushway]

yes but L-E-Ds in some ways are too bright, you want to simulate a perfect enviroment for a greenhouse to grow food in. But like I said my would be a light in side of a light.

 

[trekkiedane]

yes but L-E-Ds in some ways are too bright, you want to simulate a perfect enviroment for a greenhouse to grow food in. But like I said my would be a light in side of a light.

[I used the dashes merely to indicate the actual spelling "L (pause) E (pause) D" -which is the way they're pronounced even if they're spelled "LED".]

I'm using a 1.7 W LED-'bulp' over my desk right now, the light resembles that from a 35 W (or thereabouts) incandescent 'bulp'.
When it comes to grow-lights the energy needed by LED-lamps as opposed to incandescent lamps is even less (due to the different kinds of wavelengths LEDs can be manufactured to produce) plus they (probably - the technology is still rather new) will last a lot longer than fluorescents.

ETA: Forgot to mention: modern LED lamps can be dimmed!!!

 

[KJbushway]

I will look for something other than LEDs, because they look blue when lit.(I work with cars, thats the only kind of LED i see so excuse me I don't know alot about them)

I came up a new idea for the bins attached to my gutters.
These might be out there, I just haven't looked.
The bins would be wider then they are tall.
Inside the bins there are sticks with filters attached to them.
These filters are kinda like the ones attached to your sink, they trap gas molecules not naturally in water, trap bacteria and viruses, trap and debris that get into the gutter, bugs, etc.
These filters are then slowly spun around the bin so that they filter better and so that the water doesn't become stagnant.
Then the water is drained to the pool during summer and or in the house.
The bins that are around the yard that capture any water not hitting the gutters, are wider but still have the same design just wider and have a filter system below them that just cleans the water.
Thats my new design. enjoy.

 

[trekkiedane]

I will look for something other than LEDs, because they look blue when lit.(I work with cars, thats the only kind of LED i see so excuse me I don't know alot about them)

Ah!
That is because the most efficient LEDs actually are quite blue (cold)!
But the ones made for interior lighting do have light of a somewhat warmer (yellowish) tone! (they're just a lot more difficult to find -and you might even have to import them (from China!!!) yourself.

 

[KJbushway]

oh. well thats definitely a solution to the whole want the sun light. but I think if i can mimick a regular light, once I study how an LED light works I can work up one of my own.

But hey does that gutter bin filter thing i describe already out there?

 

[BolianAuthor]

I assume we're talking about an eco-friendly home, as opposed to a greenhouse where you only grow plants? If so, personally, I'd love to have one of these shipping container homes...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9UiaGp1y3I[/yt]

 

[KJbushway]

Yes we are talking about a green home, you can see that will my earlier posts.
Yes, I absolutely like those containers, nice desgin for a small space. Definitely eco-friendly. Yeah you can consider that a green home.
The thing that caught my eye first was the drying rack thing.

 

[KJbushway]

I just discovered something about L-E-Ds that takes them off the list for my growing room. Turn your lamp on over your desk let it run for 2hr touch the roof of it. It will be HOT, you actually feel like you just got burnt, its just puts off to much heat.