Arkopia Greenhouse - Full Consultation Seminar - Part 1 of 3 (I discuss & cover it all for free)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- 1 of 3 - The "MASTER CLASS" is a free consultation/seminar on everything I learned with the Deep Winter, Cold Climate, Passive Solar Greenhouse. Dean is the lone designer, architect, builder, and manager of the Arkopia Greenhouse, and is possibly the best design in the world for a cold climate greenhouse.
All that said, there are some minor changes that could have made it better. Dean also answers all viewer submitted questions for the greenhouse.
Part 1 of 3 topics include:
Geothermal
Thermal Mass
Climate Battery
Air Exchanges
South End Construction
& More
Link to Part 2: • Arkopia Greenhouse - F...
Greenhouse Construction Video: • One Man Build - Deep W...
Scientific Calculator (for trig): www.mathsisfun...
Tan() calculator: www.rapidtable...
Sun angle calculator: www.sunearthto...
Like, Comment, Subscribe and follow Arkopia. We are experts in preparedness, homesteading, sustainability, high efficient construction, passive solar technology, deep winter greenhouses, freeze drying & other food preservation, economics, and small sustainable food production.
Our website is www.arkopia.ca We are the inventors of the Best Selling Smoothie on amazon: Arkopia Freeze Dried Smoothies. We are also a small, multifaceted farm located in Saskatchewan, Canada where we are striving to provide our hyper-local community with food (and flowers), direct to customers off our farm.
This is pure gold. I'm building a program at the school I teach at in Calgary to get kids experienced in growing their own food, so we're trying to establish a greenhouse like this that doesn't have massive costs year round (and works with what's natural anyway). Thank you so much for sharing. This will go a long, long way.
Awesome. Really glad it’s helpful. ✌️
Finally, Saskatchewan based experience! Thank you.
Gonna watch this throughout the day when I have time. Youre gonna go down in a book somewhere for this man
🙏✌️ Hope you get lots out of it. ✌️
If not in a book, he’s definitely gonna make a list!
@@chrismullin8304 I’m already on “the list” I would imagine. 😂
@@chrismullin8304 All the cool kids are on lists
Hey man, I just found your channel and am loving it. Great stuff! Really cool greenhouse.
You so generouse of your time. Thank you.
This is amazing. Thank you so much, all of this is really helpful. You're a proper gentlemen for sharing this knowledge - priceless
With enough thermal mass, the length of time you can spend each day or summer storing up heat and the amount of time you spend each winter or night storing up cold (like the ice-block-powered "refrigerators" of the Amish) can be extended even further. You can engineer the transparent areas to maximize incoming light, and, also have two-sided (reflective or black) blinds you can deploy to either shed or gather heat.
With enough solar energy, you can supercharge your fish's water with fresh air pumped in through bubblers at the bottom of the water, which will in turn eject more carbon dioxide from the surface of the water, which will provide healthier and happier fish and plants. Also, oxygenated water is less-diseased water. Downstream from waterfalls does not look like a slough, generally.
An alternative is to exhange the water through an "artificial river" area that is somewhat shallow, allowing the turbulence and large surface area oxygenate the water as it travels from one end to the other. It can also provide an "exercise" current for fish to swim against, which they seem to like to do.
In FACT, you can even make an artificial river/swamp and lazily circulate the water around it and carefully choose some valuable plants to have in it, but it depends on the level of solar/whatever power you have on hand.
BTW, the Earth needs more CO2, not less. Overall plant mass on the planet has increased over the last 30 years, according to satellite data, at least partly due to increased CO2.
Fish that get more oxygen will grow faster. Plants with more C02 will grow faster. I wonder which depths give best results for fish, or if they just go to the bottom of the deepest thing you can construct.
I also wonder what light or rocks/shelter/whatever makes for better fish, like the experiment where they tried an artificial sea urchin with fewer and fewer spines on it to observe the fish who clustered around them, as to what they preferred. (they preferred the "urchin" with the most spines among which to cluster.)
Also, if you put insulation board in the ground around the circumference of your building, (boards standing vertically) you make that area less affected by the outside environment and moreso by your building's temperature, thus becoming part of your overall thermal mass. The deeper you insulate around the building's foundation perimeter, the more the ground becomes affected by your interior temperature, and the less by the surface temperature.
All wonderful points and ideas. So many innovations a person can get into. 🙂🙏✌️
I think that you make excellent observations. I am in Missouri. Our frost line is no where near 12 feet! And our 6 and 12 ft soil temps are glorious and constant. I think you’re spot on about the passive geothermal that Russ finch does. We get as hot as hells bells here in the summer and are extremely humid, so the passive summer air FLOW is crucial. I think knowing your frost line, sun, latitude, humidity, temp swings, and water source, and soil temp is important. For me, passive geothermal, poly carbonate, lots of insinuation, and water “battery” and solar or gas back up is adequate. Without the cool air flow in the summer and the hydraulic auto vents, our temps would be too high. The green house in the snow can’t do the try tropical. It needs more insulation, and back up energy to do those. It depends on the goal. I loved hearing your thoughtful nuance.
Thank you very much for this extremely valuable information.
My cousin worked in Calgary 20 years ago installing geothermal furnaces and then they were kept busy installing forced air furnaces in the same places because the geo could not keep up. He moved to Kelowna and worked as well for a geo place but the temperature/climate there is much better to keep up.
I bought the Chinese greenhouse book to understand about the insulation and blank ideas. You're explanation of it is excellent :)
Appreciate it very much. About geothermal, I should have specified that in much milder climates it may work. But not where I am at. ✌️🙏
Plastic pipe within a pipe. Air exchange can be done under ground but your built so use insulated flex duct. Air exchange comercial would have to be a double heat exchanger. Remember you dont need a lot of exchange with cold air. Cold air is dense as it warms it expands. 1 exchange of air space per 24 hrs
I think the problem with pumping air underground is the inefficient transfer of heat air to soil. I think a better solution is to put solar pool heaters up high so they get the sun or the hot air and pump the water underground to warm the soil. The recirculation pumps could be solar powered. What are your thoughts about that approach?
Yes. More hydronic heating (water pipes) the better. Much more versatile and better heat transfer and storage than using air. If I was to excavate down, I would sooner have water lines than air lines. 👍 Airlines just for the in ground air exchanger.
@@ArkopiaTH-cam I had mentioned much earlier on one of your early posts about wanting to build a passive solar green house in Denver. This is my first winter here and it gets below freezing frequently in the nights - some days as well, and I am enjoying your series. Originally you had the water drums across the back, then you swapped them for water storage and fish. A) why did you swap them out? Was the solar mass from your new concrete enough? I was thinking of doing the water drums myself. B) how different is raising your own fish from buying farm raised at the store? Thanks.
@@gerretw I adjusted my water storage to just utilize more space. Instead of barrels I put in black fish tanks. This way I can raise fish, co2, fertilizer, and also have more water mass at the same time. Rain water tanks on racking above the fish, nice and out of the way. Haven’t had fish long enough to be able to try eating a few, but worked out most of the kinks and it’s an easy system to maintain. It’ll get better as I dedicate more time to it.
Great video! IMO one of the best ways for a winter air exchanger is a Rocket Mass Heater, for anyone who has access to a consistent supply of wood or bushes and branches. Since were surrounded by sage brush and trees down here in Utah thats a good option for us. Looking forward to finishing this video and seeing what will work best for your application and area.
With an inside blanket it is of course necessary to have an inside skeleton to keep it up but that can be made without thickness since it only has to carry the blanket and not the roof construction. Maybe it can be made by only metallic wires .
Good idea. 👍 👍
The to the point overview is delightfully appealing, and I agree with the GAWT shortfalls.
I've seen actual tests in motion with respect to a climate battery and it is extremely effective when properly calibrated. There is great information in this but very sad that there is such a focus (especially to start) on bias that isn't totally accurate. That being said your design (and of course results) are outstanding.
I've been working on a maximum efficiency small greenhouse design and came up with the idea of using insulated garage doors as the "night time blanket cover". Just imagine if the garage on your house was facing south and when you hit the garage door opener button, it opens to reveal an angled twinwall polycarbonate greenhouse face behind it. The nice thing is this could also be used to conceal the greenhouse if ever needed and make it look like a regular garage or metal building.
That would work great. Really great. Doing that with one of my shop south overhead doors. ✌️
Ive actually thought about this too! But felt a rolling blanket could be simpler to instal.
My Dad let me use his insulated garage a number of years ago when my greenhouse didn’t fit my plethora of tomato starts. It worked perfectly as a temporary greenhouse. We put thick plastic over the garage door opening and left it open during the day, even in sub zero temps, and had a small heater going. At night we just closed the garage door. Thanks to that set up, I was able to get a garden full of tomatoes that summer! :)
We never seen the sun here in Muskoka for 6 weeks this winter total snow machine so my geothermal worked well but as you say you have to use what you have.
Curtis Stone is great. VergePermaculture is another great one with a passive air exchanger ax well that runs to his root cellars and than to the greenhouse, also I love his solar passive wall not sure about having the whole wall being vented since normally as the sun hits the black wall it heats up sucking in the cold air from the bottom and pushing hot air from the top vents
They are both great switched on dudes. 👍
I made my exhaust heat recovery system by myself and it recovers about 60-70% of heat. Suggest You to try. My heat recovery ventilation system is designed to be temporary and as cost-effective as possible. Essentially, it consists of a pipe within a pipe heat exchanger. The pipes are standard galvanized sheet metal ventilation ducts with an inlet diameter of 125mm and an outlet diameter of 100mm (I have currently extremely small house). The outlet air duct starts at the top and is brought inside the house along the wall to the exit point below the eaves. There it goes into the inlet air duct and moves 3 meters inside the incoming air duct to heat up the incoming air. It then enters a diffuser and ends with a fan. By placing the fan at the far end, we ensure that the living space is as quiet as possible.
I fixed the internal pipe with screws of the right length, which I ran through the outer pipe wall so that the ends reached exactly to the internal pipe. I insulated the outer pipe using two foil-covered yoga mats (which I got from the store for 5 euros) and wide tape to attach them. For fan control, I recommend using a smart plug, which can be purchased for 12 euros. So You can tie it with smart-house later and also to change the intervals and on/off times is as simple as possible.
Excellent. In my little house I put in a good air exchanger that pretty much runs 24/7. For the greenhouse I think yours is my best option now that I can’t do it underground. Pipe within pipe is genius. ✌️
@@ArkopiaTH-cam the problem you have is two extreme conditions -30c outside while +30c and high humidity inside.
Any heat exchanger with these conditions will not work unless you pre-heat the outside air or remove the humidity from the inside air.
This is a tough one to solve passively.
@@SamMTL514 For sure. I think really long in ground tubes would have fixed that problem. 1 fan pushing or pulling of course. 👍
This is really interesting. I'm in the HVAC industry in Regina. We are about to do a passive home. Air exchanger is critical for this place and the industry gold standard is above 80% efficient at it's best. I'd be curious to know your sq ft³. I bet you could get some great custom controller going on a raspberry pi where it measures o2 levels combined with time of day run restrictions (so it's only exchanging during solar gain hours). Love what you are doing here and I'm looking forward to watching the rest of your series.
Have you ever considered heating with a composter? There are some large drum styles used for decomposing manure, meat/animal waste, etc that can generate a decent amount of heat and also generate rich soil to use within the greenhouse! Would be a neat way of generating near free heat while reducing waste, increasing soil fertility and increasing CO2 if you can pump it out.
Did consider it. Need a big pile to get any significant heat. I prefer the sun, thermal mass, and water.
Sorry I waited so long to watch this. I love talking/learning about this shit!
Me too. 🙏✌️
Do you think it is necessary to have the Chinese blanket between the two plastic layers? Isn’t it better to have it inside the greenhouse. Then it’s construction and the mechanical equipment will be easier to reach if that is needed. I guess it is possible to find material that doesn’t suffer from a little higher humidity.
The isolation between the two plastic layers will actually work better if it is thinner and also if it is reduced to smaller components instead of one big compartment as the Chinese construction has.
The blanket rolls on top of the inner framing. Otherwise it droops down. 👍
I’m working hard and trying to save so I can do this myself
Thank-you
Wealth of info. Looking forward to seeing you solve these challenges and to future iterations. Maybe worth using an HRV with solar & battery bank?
What's the difference between a climate battery with pipes like your talking about vs. Manifolded system of pipes with airflow and heat distribution taken into factor, running short ways not long ways?
For the air exchanger I would have done I think really long runs would have worked better. That’s what I would have done. 1 long run.
With your greenhouse being attached to your shop, would it be beneficial to pull the air from inside the shop through a S curve piping system/air exchanger so that it was preheated vs straight from outside? Could the exhausted high humidity air be dumped into the shop for free heat in there? It seems we are always running a dehumidifier in the shop anyways with tractors and equipment in and out and having melting snow on the heated floor. It all runs into a floor pit and get pumped out. I guess you could have a diverter depending where you would want to exhaust. Just thoughts. Never want to waste heat. I’m also in zone 3.
Great plan. My shop is very dry, so a bit of humidity exchange would be good. Not sure exactly how I’ll do the air to air yet, but using the shop might work good. ✌️
...Not sure about wanting to run moist air into any shop.
Q. Wouldn't a simple ground-loop under the greenhouse be sufficient to drop the dewpoint without needing to vent it outside? (A small sump could pump the condensate up to your veggies. :-)
The Greenhouse-in-the-snow people also have a Canadian branch so I assume that they are set up to deal with our climate at that branch.
I mentioned your greenhouse to them in an email and they said that they have heard of your business and greenhouse…
I liked the size of yours but prefer the set up of theirs…
Hello, thank you for your great ideas, it is much inspiring.
I was thinking about rolling blanket too and I have a question related to polycarbobate. Wouldn't it be better to put polycarbonate with higher R-value as an inside and with lower R-value as outside?
What do you think?
Thanks
In your opinion, what diameter will your "s" pipes need to be for the size of building you have? Will intake of out side air tube be smaller than the discharge tube?
Haven’t thought that far ahead. Haha. Weeping tile would be the best bang for the buck, and smaller pipe in longer lengths would exchange more air between adjacent pipes? It would be just 1 blower fan exhausting, and the intake would just naturally pull air because of negative pressure. ✌️
There's a mushroom farm in Ontario that built his own air exchanger from 4x8 election signs (coroplast I think it's called) when they were being thrown away
Seemed to work in his commercial space although not quite as big as your greenhouse could be an idea
HI Dean regarding your insulation again on your building...1.under your floor in the green house do you have insulation?(some buildings i have seen place insulation down below there slab to retain heat from infloor) just wondering if you did this... Also,I understand you have R 48 on the outside walls of your green house and probably even on the pony wall, into the ground... 2. you mentioned you placed insulation at the surface level of sloping away from the greenhouse just under the ground im assuming? so question is how far out did you go? and how thick or r value did you place there around the building? some questions thanks for your time
No insulation under floor of greenhouse, did insulation under pad of my shop and regret it. 4 ft down and thick insulation around permitter, then anywhere from 6-12 ft out horizontal around the building, just under surface, with some used or broken insulation. 👍✌️ It all helps, but the greenhouse is just a big heat sink, without the air tubing system, just passively. Wish my shop was the same
To preheat cold outside air going inside: a large S tube near the relatively hot ceiling could preheat outside air, right?
That could work.
@@ArkopiaTH-cam what about using fans to push the humid hot air down (movement is good for plants also) thereby having your heat transfer mechanisms lower thereby more reachable?
The Canadian prepper just did a video about sand bags so that's pretty funny that he used some for his green house
Thanks so much for this
Would your greenhouse design still be practical in an area that gets significantly less sunny days? The area doesn't get nearly as cold as you (coldest is -30F annually) but only averages 135 sunny days a year.
I might consider less glazing for heat loss, and using artificial light.
@ArkopiaTH-cam thank you for the advice man!
Whats the production per year out of the greenhouse? Is there a rundown somewhere so I can get a ROI figure?
Nope. ✌️ Have to determine that for yourself. Your cost to build, your cost to run, and what crops you’re doing. 👍
@@ArkopiaTH-cam Sorry if I wasn't clear. What is your personal calculation for what you're growing?
@@ArkopiaTH-cam If I were to cost out your building what is the sq' cost? I suppose I need a foundation of cost in order to find out what I want to grow and then have my ROI on a per sq'. Its easily done for 'off the shelf' greenhouses, but yours has peaked my interest.
I built mine for $20 a square foot. (Includes concrete floor which is 1/4 the cost). Actual construction costs would range from $60 per square and up, with purchased new material and labour. ✌️
@@ArkopiaTH-cam Thanks for the ballpark.
-35C outside? I'd not dare venture outside. The greenhouse would have to be connected to my home as there is no way I step out to go back and forth. Canada has some harsh temperatures. I think there'd be hysteria in the UK if it ever got to -35C.
Life in hard mode. Yup
Any source for the roller blanket- I’m having trouble finding one
I never even looked for one. So no help. ✌️
So by your coordinates, you are in Saskatoon. Which also means that you know Nathan brother from Canadian Prepper. And you must be acquainted with Curtis Stone out there in Kelowna BC.
Curtis is really hyped about the sand mass thermal heat collector.
So if I may ask you about the type of sand you are using?. I have suggested that he look into Thorium sand, but that's a total different aspect of the concept.
It's okay if you have different ideas, because the both of you live in different environments. I'm willing to learn what works for you because I live in Western Alberta and your environment is closer to mine.
So now I will just listen and learn.
Saskatoon area. Nate’s a buddy and close by. Haven’t talked to Curtis yet. Would love to sometime.
And just type coordinates of the nearest location to you to quickly find sun angles, daylight hours, sunny days per year, etc. ✌️
@@ArkopiaTH-cam Well that's wonderful all the way around!
Now I don't know how you feel about spiritual things but if you can accept my beliefs (totally up to you) My God continue to bless you with health and wisdom to teach us lowly peasants who have to suffer under the authority of our illustrious prime dictator Justin El Castro.
Now that that's out of the way ,,,,I'm in need of your expertise.
My situation is this: I have a spare lot 50 x 100.with community bylaws which limits the size of construction.
So if you are in the business of making a fair exchange of technology and design for $, please let me know what your schedule is. I'm doing a lot of research on this matter and don't and can't afford huge mistakes.
My design needs are a 1000 ~1200 square foot home 2 story ,with a Green house to the south. Ground strata is 30 + feet of clay .
So a 5000 sq ft. Lot with 25 ft front and back setbacks and 5ft sideyard setbacks doesn't leave you with much to build a combined home with a greenhouse attached to the south .Any reccomendations ? .
Let me know what you need in $$$$.$$ to continue with this .If you are not into dealing with situations like mine ,,,,brother it's totally okay,,I understand.
Peace between you and me always.
@@arnoldschmidt2753 Let me think on that a little bit here and I’ll get back to you with what might be a good option. ✌️🙏
@@ArkopiaTH-cam okay. And thank you for responding so quickly.
It's constructive criticism Dean, it's understandable to want improvements on builds.
I know your job is amazing but I have only one question today, do you know Ben Davidson about suspicious observer?
Never heard of him.
@@ArkopiaTH-cam ok. I think is better you listen just the first video about heart disaster cycles because u can make better " solutions " but different locations. I follow this guy from different years , Nate ( Canadian Prepper) mentioned him to time ago and Ben Davidson mentioned Nate different time too. Me I'm preparing from 30 years before in Italy now in Canada. You free to believe or not but u r smart enough to understand what he say, and yes your channel is in my survivor list so I believe in your idea to but not everyone know the end is different catastrophic and yes we are sun of survivor. 12.000 years ago.....
Lunatic preppers always full up on doomsday theories, light on facts.
isnt -273C is absolute 0?...if someone told me they can pull heat from an impossible temperature with their technology I'd slap them.
He needed a slap. Yup.
They should have hired you for the arena😅
Government shouldn’t be building an area, or anything else. I am helping individuals build high performing structures. 👍
The co2 problem is simple. Just start living in the greenhouse lol. Jk
Actually in my saltwater fish tank co2 levels easily get to 1000ppm in the house when 5 people are there.
Actually we talk a lot about co2 levels because it lowers ph of the water.
Interesting. Thank you.
@Arkopia yes, even small animals provide enough Co2 to increase co2. Not sure you want to experiment with some chickens in a limited area but they would help co2.
@@corykeeler2655 or one farting cow, LOL!
Talking about awesome R-values for walls and roof but ignoring that of the polycarbonate/PE wall? C'mon, man. That's a grave omission, isn't it? The latter can't be more than about 4, right? So the question is, not what's the R-value for this or that part, but what's the overall average effective R-value for the building??
Also, air is not a good conductor of heat, but if you have a large air space (such as 6-in or larger) then my understanding is you will still get a lot of heat transfer (in particular, loss) via convection (as opposed to conduction). That's why the air-gap (and better the closer it is to a vacuum) in double or triple pane windows has to be small in order to effectively increase the R-value. Can you measure the temp differential either side of the PC vs. that either side of the PE? That would be interesting to know. Or just compare inside/outside temp differentials for each of the differently insulated components?
If you would get rid of your fish totes your humidity will drop