The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse: How to Design and Build a Net-Zero Energy Greenhouse Paperback - 2016

Build your own passive solar greenhouse for year-round food production in any climate

Extensively researched, written with personal experience, and full of essential facts and figures rendered simple and accessible.
-- DARRELL E. FREY, author, The Bioshelter Market Garden

A practical, easy-to-read guide that enables anyone to design and build their own sustainable, year-round greenhouse. I highly recommend it for aquaponic growers, and any gardener looking to extend their season.
-- SYLVIA BERNSTEIN, author, Aquaponic Gardening

FRESH, LOCAL, NUTRIENT-DENSE fruits and vegetables are hard to find in winter in cold climates. Growing warm-weather crops like tomatoes, bananas, avocados, or other perennials is nearly impossible using conventional structures. The solution for millions of backyard and small-scale commercial growers is self-heating solar greenhouses.

The Year-round Solar Greenhouse is the one-stop guide to designing and building greenhouses that harness and store energy from the sun to create naturally heated, lush growing environments even in the depths of winter. Topics include the principles of solar greenhouse design, siting, glazing material properties and selection, controlling heat loss, ventilation, and construction methods. Additionally, an in-depth section covers sustainable ways of heating the greenhouse without fossil fuels, including using thermal mass and storing heat underground with a ground-to-air heat exchanger.

Variations include attached solar greenhouses, earth-sheltered greenhouses, plus integrating hydroponics and aquaponics. More than a dozen case studies from across North America provide inspiration and demonstrate specific challenges and solutions for growing year-round in any climate. Grow your own food, anytime, anywhere using the power of the sun!

An important resource that will help farmers and greenhouse operators leverage innovation for sustainable and profitable food production. ...This book should be part of your tool kit.
-- GAELAN BROWN, author, The Compost-Powered Water Heater

LINDSEY SCHILLER is a greenhouse designer and is, with co-author Marc Plinke, co-owner of Ceres Greenhouse Solutions. Lindsey has designed, toured, and helped build hundreds of energy-efficient greenhouses spanning small residential structures to acre-size commercial facilities.

MARC PLINKE is an inventor-innovator with a PhD in engineering. In recent years he has focused his engineering mindset on building innovative, energy-efficient, and smarter greenhouses, with the intention of enabling people to grow their own food sustainably and year-round.