4200 sq ft GEOTHERMAL GREENHOUSE Build! - Ep 019

In one of our previous episodes, we met Stonebend Farm and toured their farm operation. One of their big dreams, however, was to create a greenhouse that would not only serve to house plants-but also house a kitchen and community meeting and restaurant space. This maps their build of a custom, state-of-the-art 4,200 square foot geothermal greenhouse designed and executed by local design-architecture-construction firm, Trade Design Build (tradedesignbuild.com).
We watched this build out in anticipation because we too are looking to build a greenhouse and know that there are some learning curves along the way. Stay tuned here because we'll have more updates of the greenhouse build along the way.
See what else Stonebend is up to on their website here: www.stonebend.com
And more of Trade Design Build's work here: tradedesignbuild.com
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[@franz4486]

Mad props to Sander for taking on this episode. Great job with the interview! 👏👏👏

[@sonnysome3201]

I was gonna say. Very good job!

[@tristanjaiden3057]

i realize I am kinda off topic but does anybody know a good site to stream newly released movies online?

[@majorrudy9200]

@Tristan Jaiden Lately I have been using flixzone. You can find it by googling =)

[@riawhetstone3725]

Sander’s carpentry background is really shining with these questions!

[@sharonknorr1106]

So we had an earth battery(seems like the same idea as geothermal) greenhouse built in 2015. Think the tubing could have been sunk deeper in the ground, but all in all, we are very happy with it. it is 20' by 10' with raised beds (almost waist height - I am 69 and not up for a lot of bending over) and a shed that goes all the way along the back, which helps with insulation. The back wall is concrete blocks - wall was painted white because we decided more reflected light in the winter was more important than the slight increase in heat storage with a black wall. The covering is 2-ply polycarbonate. We use it to overwinter pots of tender plants, grow a small veggie and herb garden and do starts in the spring. We do add a little heat in the dead of winter to keep our tropicals at a tolerable level (one of those cheap, oil-filled radiators), but could do without heat if only growing cold-tolerant stuff. We have a row of automatic (wax-mediated) vent openers along the top to keep the heat at the right place - ended up springing for the pricier Gigivents which have been able to withstand the 100 mph winds we sometimes get up here. They have worked very well for us and don't require electricity. We use a system from La Crosse to monitor conditions in the greenhouse with our phones. Love having a greenhouse - music, good book, class of wine, blooming plants when it's 10 degrees outside - heaven.

[@kerryblackburn7850]

every single new build structure, especially residential homes, should include geothermal. Since we care so much about our carbon footprint

[@PaulieVavoom]

What a fantastic video! I've added it to my Top Favorites. Stonebend Farm is the model for tomorrow's farming. They are harvesting water. They are building this big enough to place garage doors so a small tractor can haul in loads of soil, compost, fertilizer, and such with ease. They are building it tall enough to stack growing racks of varying sizes. They are installing a concrete slab with radiant in-floor heating to prolong the life of the concrete while keeping the building warmer in the winter. They are using geothermal energy to capture the earth's uniform temperature to keep the building warm in winter and cool in summer. On top of all of that, they have a pizza restaurant serving libations, fruit and vegetable retailing, and tours to the public, and did someone say something about weddings??? C'mon! This place is ingenious and so damn environmentally friendly! Bravo!!! I want to see more videos.

[@cefcat5733]

That's huge. The update will be cool. Let that go smooth before the snow falls again.

[@hollybeck605]

Love Summer- but it was really nice to have an all Sander video!

[@lindabeaulieu6770]

Fascinating build. It sounds awesome once completed. Can't wait to see more videos on the progress.

[@dashaananlankeshwar5179]

This is amazing. I am so much looking forward to this project. The plan sounds really exciting. Good job Summer and Saunder ❤️❤️

[@suekuly4723]

Wow! Can’t wait to see an update on this. 🙌🏻

[@judymckerrow6720]

I can’t wait to see the end results💚🙃

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We'll have some update videos in the coming weeks. Including how it held up in winter.

[@traciekowalski7664]

I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished building project and the the vision and dream of Stonebend Farm conceptualized. The intense forethought into all the many systems to utilize, heat, water and air were fascinating. I'm glad Sander took the lead on this episode and was able to flex his construction brain. Another great episode! I look forward to snagging a slice from Stonebend soon.

[@nathan1459]

This is absolutely brilliant. Thank you for showing us this.

[@robinanderson4911]

Great video. I am at about 46 degrees, Southern Vermont and have fantaziised for years about one. I have feed myself from this farm for 51 years, do alot of freezing, but would love a winter indoor space. Thanks for the inspiration

[@SHARONSHORTOrchidsandGarden]

Incredible 😲😲! Can't wait to see business booming!! Thanks for sharing and happy growing.

[@monicalesser]

Stonebend has been a HUGE inspiration in my own personal gardening. Since your channel featured them originally I realized their style resonated with my style of gardening so much! I even picked up some of those gorgeous Hungarian Purple peppers to grow from seed and I've never been successful at growing from seed, but these are thriving! Thank you for sharing!

[@summerrayneoakes]

Very glad it's an inspiration. Here's to passing on the inspiration!

[@KimberlyDurrMusic]

🌓 This video was absolutely incredible, it gives me many ideas and confirms the plans for our ideas as well, so glad you posted these guys building this incredible structure, they are definitely an option to put on our list of builders for what we are going to do in Florida. Great video, great job for sure. 🙋🏾‍♀️🦋

[@barbll000]

I remember when you showed their pizza night and I super enjoyed that video. Thanks for following up. This greenhouse is going to be so gorgeous and of course functional. I wish someday I could go and visit the whole area. I love hearing what the residents are doing. I look forward to more updates on this greenhouse.

[@tanyal7122]

I just love the excitement and ingenuity of this project. It makes me happy that these lovely owners and the construction company are thinking of the future. I'd go for pizza in a heartbeat if I I wasn't way up in Northern British Columbia 😁❤

[@Coopsterish]

Good point. This build will be fun to watch. Nice to see passionate people especially when it comes to food production. Because of global warming, “thinking outside of the box” needs to become the norm.

[@JoannaLouise200]

Stunningly beautiful and well-engineered building!

[@justpatty7328]

"Consumed by life and growth!" Superb!

[@sonnysome3201]

Nuts! This was such an awesome episode. The concept is so inspiring. Can't wait to see the launch. Good job Sander btw. I don't think I've ever been this fascinated with a construction site :D. A good one.

[@pearlspiers4779]

The recycling, minimal carbon footprint, environmentally friendly ethos…. wonderful, responsible living 💕 Thank you #flockfingerlakes xx

[@juliahelland6488]

Fantastic interviewer! You asked a lot of well thought out questions. Thanks for sharing! 💯 ❣️

[@liamwinter4512]

All these well thought out designs are inspiring.

[@rainrayyan3558]

Can't wait to see the progress

[@starsnstrife]

It feels good to build things you love with your hands.

[@nancysueleske7819]

So inspiring!

[@healthfullivingify]

Great job on this video and on the greenhouse's design. Thanks for sharing, Sander and Summer.

[@j.m.k.3406]

Good for them, one of my pipe dreams as a Gardener, great job men!

[@silverrose7554]

I am so impressed I have been working on getting funding for land make 4 geothermal houses . Your amazing .

[@grannygarden5887]

Great business plan/idea. Good luck and god bless you!!!

[@nathanaelcard]

Can't wait to see how this turned out

[@brendenmcbrier3861]

Awesome video and structure. Thanks for sharing with the world.

[@karlbutlerking]

Is there an update to this video? What's the end result? I thoroughly enjoyed this!

[@SarahSmith-hd8kd]

Looks alot like "Greenhouse in the Snow" kit and build he started 29 years ago... which is part of why it is so cool to me.

[@StonedOdie]

Oh hey look, it’s me in the beginning when the boss was bringing in stone and I was walking with the level stick. That G.A.T. System was insanely hard to build. Thank god it was basically a drought that year cuz if it was raining like this yeah wow. Woulda been flooded the whole time. We installed all the concrete pylons to hook the wood to for the walls. We dug all the G.A.T. System and the drain tile around the whole building so it would keep the G.A.T. System dry. At around 4:30 behind Terry that’s the elevated patio we did. I have a few pictures I think of the G.A.T. System before the concrete was over it. The whole area the greenhouse is on was nothing but weeds and all kinds of BS we had to come through with the D7 to clear it all out. It’s awesome. Not tryina talk exact money but there’s a very expensive Lexus under the concrete price wise lol.

[@StonedOdie]

18” pipe with 3 levels of 8 holes each for the pipe to go through. Was really hard to put those in. Then had to rent a HUGE plate tamp so we could pack it all down. I heard Gilligan say it was a bit of an investment underneath but it wasn’t a bit. It was a huge investment, but it’s working great and doing a great job. That 4 fr of insulation he’s talking about I installed by running the dozer through around the entire building with a slight dip going lower from the building, dug under the building a little bit so they’d slide under the building (the 4ft insulation) and it worked great.

[@JohnGuest45]

@@StonedOdie When folks say it works great they usually mean that cool air is coming out of the tubes. The issue is that most systems dont move enough air to keep up with the incoming solar gain so the greenhouse overheats even with the system running. For effective cooling you need to turnover the entire greenhouse air volume at least 20x an hour. By my reckoning , this installation may support 7200cfm and as the greenhouse volume is definitely a lot more than 21,600 cubic feet you wont be getting anything like 20x an hour.

[@joshhorn5131]

Holy hen shit. This builder has more balls than a pool table, setting all those trusses/beams without bracing. Damn

[@mustachadon]

Gosh, imagine the price of the raw wood on those trusses.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Building materials have definitely shot up. They were supposed to have larch siding, but couldn't even get that-so oak became the next runner up.

[@tubingtomtom]

That’s some badass engineering

[@kosycat1]

Nice build. These guys are true crasftman. Getting ideas for my own build one day. subbed

[@christophermarshall527]

Fascinating build love it, would be good to see how it all panned out a few years later..

[@mwatson3302]

We live in the area, will definitely check this place out.

[@lukewarm2075]

Awesome fantastic idea to use the heat from the pizza oven.

[@miltononyango]

amazing

[@jwristen24]

The radiant heat will melt the snow on the roof so the load structure could be minimized.

[@SequoiaElisabeth]

I am interested to see if the geothermal system actually works and how beneficial it is. I have never seen a GT system done so shallow. Temps don't stabilize till about 6', so I will be following this build on your channel. Keep us updated. I was really concerned till I saw the fan system in the walls. It sounds like they have done a stellar job of research and implementation of systems. Thinking though all the contingencies seems impressive. I love the rain water collection system. Looking forward to seeing the farm in about a year.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

They ended up going down 6 feet here. But there will definitely be some learnings for sure! We'll have an update from the winter coming up soon. Thanks for your interest.

[@JohnGuest45]

A sheltered thermal mass doesnt follow the normal trend because the energy balance (heat in/heat out) is completely different.

[@davidpedder9048]

In the winter, check which area of the concrete slab gets the most sun during the day. That area can be painted black

[@elenasobrino1777]

The choice of wooden beams reminds me of the E. Fay Jones chapel in Arkansas!

[@seekhim1560]

I want to visit this place!

[@TheChocrose]

I know where I’m going when I am back in New York and Burlington Flats is only 90 minutes away. Pizza and plants mmmmm

[@pandahead9274]

Cool stuff. I believe it would help if you guys had a picture for your channel logo, it would help make it seem more official.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Totally. We have been trying to change the avatar here, but there is a bug in the system at YT that prevents us from putting our avatar on. we've reported it to them, but no changes unfortunately. Is that what you mean?

[@cookingclassics]

I can’t imagine the cost here.

[@victoriaman117]

Is everyone BUT me independently wealthy? How do people afford this stuff? I cant even buy a house!

[@blackduckfarmcanada]

It's a business, therefore business expense. My money's on 50% of this cost covered by government grants too

[@sedalia9356]

Yeah, this is too nice for simply commercial use and investment. That money came from elsewhere.

[@thearmy88ify]

What skills do you have that others don’t? Pretty simple actually, coming from someone who was a homeless drug addict 15 years ago. Stop thinking you need to love what you do and get skills that pay good.

[@christinemurray1444]

Climate has never been predictable, it's not a new phenomenon.

[@altosack]

Climate is predictable; weather is not.

[@christinemurray1444]

@@altosack climate is just the Latin cognate of the Germanic word weather. The distinction is part of this new fiction. There are weather changes at all time scales. Over geological timescales, the day slowly gets longer, the sun will destroy the planet and the galaxy will collide with Andromeda. At the century timescale, solar activity has dominated global weather and it's known to have produced cold and hot ages since antiquity, with impact on human history. Whether human activity can also impact the weather is a different conversation. It obviously can.

[@christinemurray1444]

@@altosack I'd swear I had another reply here but I was busy to address it and now it's gone. Sorry about that.

[@joansmith3492]

I am guessing you will still need a thermal blanket at night in the winter like Chinese passive greenhouses.

[@KellyBurnham]

Looks like about $1M+ worth of greenhouse. Good luck with the ROI on that one.

[@StonedOdie]

Damn I wish this had video from the very very beginning.

[@butymetree7340]

جميل جميل

[@luckeychuckey70]

0:49 BYE!

[@sealevelreef7174]

Has a Great Tv voice

[@genevieve6834]

I can't imagine the amount of money going into this build! I mentioned this when you first started flock, not to this scale , a bit OTT! and the slab, environmentally unfriendly, seems to defeat the purpose , but it seems this is more for show than a need to provide food for the community year round. For a cheaper alternative with no slab watch "nebraska retiree uses earths heat to grow oranges in the snow" , mature food forest, amazing. Look forward to seeing how this turns out though.

[@Coopsterish]

I posted a link to that video above. That is exactly what came to mind while watching this video.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We've watched that video back when it came out! Excellent video. Since this will be used as a commercial kitchen and eating area, however, the building out of the earth might not actually pass code, but that's just our guess.

[@genevieve6834]

@@FlockFingerLakes True, it is a business venture, very different from the lovely retiree and very innovative man, considering he incorporated geothermal into his house 50 years ago., a real sweetheart too.

[@sharonknorr1106]

We have this type of greenhouse, but with a dirt floor. But it is MUCH smaller and just for personal use. We never had any trouble with the inspections.

[@scottsolar5884]

How did they engineer the air exchange feature? Im referring to the footage of underground air ducts. How would one know if this is enough?

[@offgridwanabe]

Do you think you will lose a lot of heat with the trench drain taking all the heated water down to the storage without a heat transfer device to reclaim the heat in the water.

[@katemiller8113]

They’re using some of the principals of a walipini but adding a lot more cost.

[@katemiller8113]

Principles...doh

[@JohnSmith-dz9zl]

Amazing design guys👍 I love those Oak trusses. What size are they

[@jenniewilliams1668]

Thank you Sander! I don't quite get this particular design for cooling. Why not send the hot summer air out through mechanical windows at the very top and send the cool 55 degree air directly to the floor to cool what is there? Not getting why you'd want to bring down the temp 10 degrees when it will gain more than 10 degrees from trapped air... I love geothermal - its a very exciting project - although it looks extremely expensive in comparison with other projects I've seen. Seems like this farmer has unlimited money. Of course everyone is working for free to make it work right? hehe Warmest regards Jennie

[@JohnGuest45]

It would be a little like running an AC with your windows open :)

[@StonedOdie]

And those Perma Columns were the biggest pain in the was ever to get in. Personally I’d never want to do them again but they also are amazing when it comes to holding the building together and not moving at all. When we installed the drain tile we dug very close to the building on the corners so that the gutters could just connect to them extremely easily so it would just drop down and follow the drain tile. At around 17:00 that hole you see is the one we dug with a drop the whole way so the water would flow down the sides the whole way, and under that cloth you see is the drain tile.

[@StonedOdie]

And at the 32:00 mark on the left side the big excavator and the back ho are two of the many pieces of equipment we had there to get the project done.

[@smoya11]

I'm curious what was the final cost. I saved the company's information. Ideally, I want to build something like this but also make it my home. I want to built lower into the ground and I'm curious to know what other option other than concrete is available.

[@brandonbernard4171]

Well there's my dream

[@ShayBaby64]

I can't find any dimensions on this other than about 4200sqft. Length, width, height? Beautiful building! Great vid!!

[@Wolf-xu1fj]

Him: I don’t know who that is Truck driver: I don’t know who that is

[@HippocratesGarden]

earth battery.

[@GootMetal]

I wonder how do they deal with the sediment tank when it fills up with too much sediments.

[@shammer120]

Beautiful design. The initial investment must have been astronomical. I wonder what the payback period would be.

[@adept00]

First video of this series for me so ill have to look at the other's but im curious if anyone took the time to calculate the latent heatload of the biomass going to be growing inside. Something that large would be significant. Nice project.

[@johnthomas5806]

Perhaps you know of the gentleman in Nebraska who grows tropical plants in the winter?????

[@orgorg239]

When you have people walking in and out and the place is open then pests will enter and eat your plants. You need to be able to close it off and put some dry ice or something in there at night to kill off the unwanted insects.

[@morgan2625]

The building looks great! Did you consider getting it certified through LEED or BREAM or other green building certification?

[@morgan2625]

Love the geothermal and water collection elements as well!

[@bootangy]

if i cant get a south facing greenhouse due to my land restriction is it a bad thing?

[@kenvaneyk3420]

Wow, looks very expensive, maybe you should of looked into Chinese passive solar greenhouses. The concept of there design alit of sense and it is totally energy free of any heat source even to temperatures of -30 degrees and more.

[@Serganten1]

This is the exact greenhouse I would want to build for commersial use in Sweden. What kind of price range in total was this greenhouse? Probably wont be able to find any similar constuction design here in Sweden, but would like to know where the price might land if I would be able to pull it off.

[@AverageWorkshop]

Impressive project, but this sounds to me more like a thermal mass greenhouse (in this case, the ground and concrete slabs are used as a heat sink to regulate, temperature) rather than a geothermal system that uses compression of some mediums, heated by the constant temp of soil to generate heat

[@jwiereng]

24:04 Did you use 8 mm polycarb? or 16? I operate a commercial greenhouse 83,000 sq ft. Great to see this kind of build.

[@SarahSmith-hd8kd]

Would you use 8 mm or 16 mm?... and why?

[@jwiereng]

@@SarahSmith-hd8kd 8 and 16 mm are common sizes of commercially available glazing panels. If budget is allows I would prefer the 16 mm with thermally broken bar and cap glazing system.

[@jasonwalmsley5488]

Can I get more info on this greenhouse,I’d like to make one myself, I live in northern Alberta. I really interested can I call you for more info

[@RhumRunner41]

Why is the one side so low? Won’t that limit access for machinery? I’m gonna have to watch more of this series to find out how much this investment costs.

[@tomkacandes8286]

Why ITH would you use electric water heaters for the slab radiant when you could use an air-to-water heat pump and get 2.5x the efficiency with something like a SpacePak Solstice Extreme that would create heat down to -10F?

[@andortamas395]

Do you have an update on this?

[@dannykhaan4683]

How do I get the blueprint. Dose anyone have one?

[@CM-sj9pb]

why did not you make the green house half burried to have less heat losses? if to paint in black the interior highest wall watching to the south it could retain much heat in the spring and autumn.

[@Interglacial_optimist]

Shouldn't the floor have been below grade as deep as you could go?

[@joshuafisher5299]

Can I ask what your total cost was to build the greenhouse?

[@toddkobell4441]

Looks like a lot of money 🤑💰

[@toddkobell4441]

I have seen some retractable roofs that are more heat efficient from lower budget.

[@dwightlee6164]

what was the total cost for this project ?

[@WesleySnipes3568]

Sick build Brother! How can I get in touch with you guys and collaborate on the pros and cons of your design?

[@zrumble]

No video of the geothermal?

[@georgewhitehouse8630]

Are all greenhouses geothermal?

[@samsawesomeminecraft]

why concrete the floor of the greenhouse? I would've used the native soil instead, just the same thing but with dirt instead of concrete.

[@gafairbanks2434]

Possibly to pass code of State. Commercial area, people, kitchen etc. Need to be able to clean space safely after events. Like that of a polebarn building for community use. Etc. The septic has to be another HUGE COST.

[@mjoelnir1899]

I hardly think that you use geothermal energy. What you use is ground source based, witch is often misnamed geothermal. Geothermal means that you use heat radiating from the earth core, that means you have to go quite a bit deeper, drill at least 400 m, because you are not in an area where geothermal reaches the surface.

[@user-cg7tl]

Good but this costs a massive amount of money to build like this, and it's not necessary. You can build the same design for a tiny fraction of the cost, especially if you do the work yourself.