Garage?
For several years I didn't use a car, but biked every where. Occasionally our family needs a car to move things or go somewhere together. I've been an all-season bike commuter since 1997. I icebiked throughout the Chicago winter from 1997 to 2008. I've been icebiking the Mongolian winter. Last winter I biked to school about 5 km in -40F in a single pair of socks, one pair of PI lobster gloves, visorgogs, etc. In Mongolia people routinely think I'm 30-35 years old, even though I'm now 47. If we live in an earthship, then we need a vehicle to run in January to get somewhere if necessary. If it wasn't for -20F or -30F or -40F or below, we would probably be OK. I think if a garage is warmer than 0F or even -10F that it's no problem to start a car with no special preparation. Mike Reynolds doesn't talk about garages too much. I didn't like the garage add-on for the global model, because the thermal wrap around the house in interrupted, so I've been thinking of a separate garage with the earthship principal with tire walls and greenhouse. I struggled a bit. Actually a single U design is pretty good if you don't have a greenhouse and the garage door seals shut reasonable well. We'll see about that.
It seems pretty simple: collect rainwater off the roof into a small cistern and set up the pipe to feed into the greenhouse. We just visit the greenhouse and turn the water on with a faucet and water the whole thing. The cistern could also be used in case we run out of water in the main cistern. I seems if we're going to build a structure that we should maximize greenhouse food production. Last winter I had about 20 plants in our apartment fed manually with some graywater. It was warm enough and they were next to the window. They didn't grow much in the winter, but when March and April came, they were all poised and exploded with huge spider plants with many many shoots. Likewise, even if we can maintain an environment above freezing, we probably can't expect much in winter. However, we extend the growing season so we get 2 months in spring and 2 months in late fall. It's early September and we're approaching the first frost. I'm sure I'll have houseplants, but I'm focusing on growing fruits and vegetables in winter. An eccentric college professor growing a jungle garden in the Mongolia winter with recycled tires and vodka bottles.
I was encouraged yesterday. I was looking at some stand alone garage designs that I drew up:
I was looking at these and attaching the vigas and the roof was a little difficult or not as elegant as the earthship due to the garage door. I was thinking of design 1 in the image at first. This kind of utilizes more tire wall, but attaching a roof gets weird and complicated. None of these are impossible. 4 is the easiest to implement a roof though awkward for the greenhouse and the water line situation starts to get complicated, unless the cistern is towards the front sides, which might not be a bad idea, except that it would probably be on one side. I would probably prefer 6 over 5, since I'd spend less on concrete. All of these designs require that the greenhouse only to be insulated into the ground 2 meters or something with the same effect. I'd rather not spend money on putting a thermal wrap around the car garage part. However, for 5 and 6, it seems I probably would have to. 5 and 6 might have the most expensive roofs and the most expensive insulation. A problem with 1 is that the northern most part creates a lot of shadow and shrinks the greenhouse a little. So 2 and 3 look pretty simple and good. That means I have to lay concrete footings in the ground behind the greenhouse and make a roof like the global model. I would put vertical glass on the front of the greenhouse and less vertical glass behind it to warm the garage a little if the door can create a fairly good seal, which has yet to be seen. If we take a design like 2, the curving S tire wall creates some stability with the berm behind it and can be extended off east and then hook north, extending the greenhouse a little.
Wherever we build a tire house, we should collect rainwater and build a greenhouse. Last night I was thinking it is too costly or troublesome to build this greenhouse detached from the main house, though we could possible send gray water overflow there in warm months. I was encouraged that my wife insisted we have the greenhouse. What is the cost anyway? The greenhouse needs insulated glazing in the front and some behind it. The sidewalls of the greenhouse need some insulation, probably R-30. The greenhouse roof needs maybe R-60. The garage ceiling doesn't need full insulation (roof + thermal wrap insulation) in my opinion, though we could to make it convertible into a living space in a pinch by closing off the garage door completely. We'll go shopping locally for garage doors, but I'm hoping we can find some do it yourself plans. Another thing is the car can dip into the ground, so fewer tires are required.. The greenhouse planters can be open bottom directly into the dirt floor. OK, so we need some vigas or trusses for the roof. We need a frame and garage door and separate door for a person to enter. We need a door to enter the greenhouse only from the inside, so the plants never get hit by direct winter air. I brought a spider plant outside last December in -30F. After about 30-60 seconds to get in a car it immediately wilted and half the plant died. If the garage door doesn't seal well, then we need an airlock somehow.
OK, so a difficulty of 2 and 3 is that I MUST put insulation into the ground vertically 2 meters deep AND when covering it up I have to get a concrete footing in there to install a wooden frame for some glass. I've read on various gardening blogs that to keep greenhouses warm in winter people put containers of water in the room. I'm reminded of that scene from "Garbage Warrior" when Mike R. suggest an experimental house with water walls. What I don't like about 2 and 3 is that the west back wall of the greenhouse has to be able to support a roof and then join to that west wall. OK, the west and east greenhouse walls would be a bottle wall, no doubt about it. How about this: the roof is north facing, but the gutter behind the garage drains to the east corner into a cistern to the east. The gutter behind the east greenhouse runs west into another silt catch, and the cistern is east of the garage, so it's right next to the greenhouse to feed it with gravity.
So what's the cost?
- insulation around the greenhouse 2 meters vertically in the ground in walls and in joist greenhouse roof *****
- garage door ****
- modest insulation on the garage roof ***
- vertical insulated glazing on the front face ****
- Maybe 2-4 panels of insulated glazing behind the greenhouse ***
- door for people next to garage door **
- door with a good amount of glass behind the greenhouse **
- metal pro-panel type roofing with gutter ****
- joist over greenhouse ****
- piping with manual faucet from cistern to greenhouse *
- concrete to coat cistern **
- riser (2 plastic garbage cans?) for cistern *
- wooden frame for insulated glazing ***
Other components of low/no cost:
- tire cistern, tire walls
- bottles for walls, bond beam
We may build this first to gain a storage area and even temporary living space for a desk in summer.
