Revolutionizing Agriculture with 5th World’s Passive Solar Greenhouse

today we're in central BC with a really short growing season in fact we have about a hundred frost-free days to grow all of our food in this climate however we've got to pass this little Greenhouse behind us which allows us to extend that growing season to four full seasons using a minimum amount of energy so today we have an opportunity to go take a look inside of this greenhouse it's not quite done which allows us to look behind the scenes in ways that we won't be able to see in just a few months from now once we have a tropical Food Forest growing in there we're going to talk about the integrated design between the greenhouse the kitchen and the root Cellars how they connect together and how this novel technology can be used to grow nutrient-dense food all year round I'm standing in the main growing area which we refer to as the passive solar Greenhouse now this greenhouse is quite unique in that when we compare this to a conventional Greenhouse which has glass on all six sides you'll notice that I'm in a greenhouse where the walls to the West the East and the north are insulated this allows us to minimize thermal energy loss while maximizing the amount of visible light coming in to grow our plants we do this so that we can grow plants year round with minimal energy use we do this with a variety of Innovative Technologies one of which is the solar wall right here to my right the solar wall is black so that it absorbs solar radiation throughout the day and it's perforated so that as air moves through the wall surface it picks up that thermal energy the air is then sucked into this silver duct and injected below my feet through a network of pipes that allows that thermal energy to be released into the soil the soil itself picks that energy up like a battery and allows us to move energy from the summer and the fall into the winter and so with a very small amount of electricity running a small fan we're able to move that Surplus energy in the summer and keep this greenhouse warm year-round allowing us to have a very secure supply of food now this system not only provides heat through the winter but as we're storing that thermal energy through the summertime it actually also provides a cooling benefit as well so air that moves through this network of pipes releasing that energy into the soil comes out the other side and is cooled and humidified ensuring that we keep a really fantastic growing condition for the plants inside the greenhouse the Subterranean heating and cooling system is completely automated so when it gets too hot in here the system turns on in order to store heat and cool the greenhouse and when the system gets too cold then the fan turns back on again in order to inject heat back into the greenhouse so it has two set points that allows it to moderate the temperature within the greenhouse now in addition to that system we also have a garage door that's automated so if it gets really hot in here the garage door will actually open up if it gets too cold the garage door will close and then the garage doors also programmed to automatically close at night so even if it is too hot in here it'll still come down for security reasons we also have automated vents on the South Side as well as on the North side and we have circulation fans to make sure that there's enough air movement in the greenhouse to give plants exercise because they like to have a little bit of movement throughout the day so the greenhouse is 800 square feet and we're setting it up to mimic a Mediterranean and subtropical climate so we're going to be growing things like avocado Banana Bay Laurel fig and possibly olives and the greenhouse is located adjacent to a commercial kitchen where we can take the food that we grow in here we can preserve it in various methods and then we can go and put it into a root cellar and I'll show you what those root Cellars look like and how that whole process goes from Kitchen to root cellar right now [Music] thank you we're in the basement at the Morningside Greenhouse right now and this is where our primary and secondary root Cellars are it's also where we bring all the power into the greenhouse and we manage the power throughout the space so this is our primary panel and this provides power to all the loads of the greenhouse in a grid up scenario but we've also designated certain loads in the greenhouse specifically all the functions in the greenhouse the root Cellars and emergency lights onto a secondary emergency panel right here and this panel will provide power to the greenhouse in a grid down scenario ensuring that our food production as well as the food storage mechanism of this greenhouse Works regardless of the state of the grid lastly this is also where we have the brain of the greenhouse and so this small little controller up here is what measures the temperature in the greenhouse the root Cellars and it manages all the geothermal heating as well as the ventilation and any kind of circulation of air within the greenhouse itself so I'm still standing in the mechanical room just in an adjacent corner and in front of me is a heat recovery ventilator this heat recovery ventilator pulls the waste gases out of the kitchen in order to harvest the Heat and the humidity and get rid of the CO2 that accumulates when people are using the kitchen the waste gases and that Surplus heat is then exchanged through a heat exchanger in here fresh air comes through the heat recovery ventilator captures that heat but whatever isn't captured in the waste gases then gets injected into the greenhouse providing low-grade heat as well as that CO2 that was generated while we were using the kitchen can be used as a plant food within the greenhouse this building houses three separate root Cellars we have a root cellar to my right on the other side of this wall and it's specifically designed for crops that want to be cool and humid things like potatoes carrots even apples potentially and above me we have a root cellar that's cool and dry so it's great for canned goods things like flowers peas grains things that like a low humidity but still benefit from being cool this one down here is further into the ground and so it is cold and dry so this would be really good for aging meat or storing crops that need a lower humidity and so every crop has its own humidity and temperature profile in order to prolong the amount of time that you can actually store this crop and be able to use it into the future what makes The Root Cellar different in this situation are these Earth tubes so Earth tubes convey air from the outside underground and by doing that we are able to condition the air to the temperature of the Earth around 4 degrees Celsius year round it travels through this pipe threw a fan over there in the corner and is injected into that Root Cellar over there by moving the air through these Earth tubes we're not only lowering its temperature in the summer raising it in the winter but we're also humidifying the Airstream and by injecting it into this Root Cellar to my right hand side we're making sure that there's always fresh air in that room ensuring that there's never an anoxic Condition it's really important that we build maintenance into these systems and so these caps can be removed we can put a rope through here with a rag with hydrogen peroxide or chlorine that allows us to clean the interior surface of the Earth tubes should they ever get fouled on this is the primary Root Cellar and I'm standing in front of the duct that comes from those Earth tubes that we just spoke about air gets injected through this pipe here and it pressurizes the room and then the air that leaves the room comes out of this duct right here which gets injected into the greenhouse and you can see we already have crops from last season we've got a batch of carrots right here in this sawdust which is ready to go to the kitchen canning and food preservation can create a lot of heat and humidity and so it made a lot of sense to have a canning kitchen commercial kitchen with our passive solar greenhouse and our Root Cellar so food comes from the greenhouse into the prep space we can preserve it and as soon as we've finished preserving the food it can go straight into the root cellar the greenhouse heating system is quite novel in that sun comes through the glazing on the South Side it hits the solar wall the solar wall being painted black will heat up and there's an airspace behind that metal clad surface which Heats air up behind it that air then gets sucked into the duct and gets injected under the ground heating up the soil underneath the plants so all summer long we're absorbing that excess thermal energy in the soil and the soil is actually warming up in preparation for winter when winter comes along the soil underneath the plants is warm and moist which allows it to release its energy all winter long keeping the greenhouse above freezing and so this is a very novel way of basically moving excess thermal energy in the summertime into the winter time which is what allows us to run a force using Green Hills the Earth tubes connected to the root cellar function in a similar fashion hot air in the summertime is brought through the Earth tubes and tempered back down to earth temperature approximately four degrees Celsius and in doing that it ensures that the air going into The Root Cellar doesn't get too warm thus decomposing the vegetables too quickly in the winter time we can pull cold air through those Earth tubes which will then warm them up making sure that our Root Cellar doesn't go below zero now in doing that the ground will actually freeze harder through the winter time which gives us a stored Bank of cold energy that we can then gain access to in the following summer so The Root Cellar fresh air comes from a series of Earth tubes and excess air from The Root Cellar and any of the noxious gases that come off of the vegetables being stored there get pumped into the greenhouse which benefit the plants the kitchen also produces waste gases humidity and has excess heat when cooking is going on and so we have a ventilation system called a heat recovery ventilator and that exhausts the air from the kitchen Into The Root Cellar as well thus injecting humidity and CO2 as well as the noxious gases that can be created as a result of decomposing vegetables into the greenhouse this pipe is the exhaust from the heat recovery ventilator it's so stale air coming from the kitchen is pulled through that heat exchanger and anything that's left over from a heat or humidity perspective is pumped into the greenhouse so this also provides a low-grade heat and humidity for the plants within the space thanks so much for coming on the greenhouse tour today we're at a really interesting phase in the greenhouse and that we're not quite done and so we can show you things that are not going to be visible in the very near future if you want to follow this project as well as the other projects that we're working on within fifth world then make sure you check the link in the show notes down below sign up for our newsletter check out our website and subscribe to our Channel thanks so much guys we'll see in the next video [Music]

Channel: 5th World

Views: 344,836

Keywords: 5th world, verge permaculture, how to build a greenhouse, what should I plant in my greenhouse?, best plants for greenhouse, regenerative soil, how to make my soil healthier, how do I test my soil?, what is regenerative agriculture?, environmental, ecology, sustainable, regenerative, green, environment, climate, climate change, grazing, soil, agroforestry, forestry, agriculture

Id: tQcUXSUDkQ8

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 08 2023