I found this link through StumbleUpon and some of the links don't work properly. However, this is a well documented project for building a 12x24 plastic film passive solar greenhouse that could extend the growing season and produce lots of food.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#5eqP4b/aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-greenhouse.php/



Right click on any links and open in a new tab or browser window - some don't work, but the link to the plans seems to.

That is great.  Thank you.

That Stumble upon link didn't work for me, below is a link to the article.
http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-greenhouse.php

That's a better and more up to date link. Thanks!

The new link http://aes.missouri.edu/swcenter/research/solar-heated%20greenhouse.pdf

These links appear to need renewing regularly.

Thanks for the update

Quote from: John Raabe on November 10, 2009, 10:36:28 AM
I found this link through StumbleUpon and some of the links don't work properly. However, this is a well documented project for building a 12x24 plastic film passive solar greenhouse that could extend the growing season and produce lots of food.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#5eqP4b/aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-greenhouse.php/



Right click on any links and open in a new tab or browser window - some don't work, but the link to the plans seems to.

Thank you for this John! I tried viewing the plans but it doesnt appear to work anymore. I know this was posted a long time ago.. does anyone have a copy?

Thanks 

Quote from: minnowcat on January 19, 2016, 02:51:16 PM
Thank you for this John! I tried viewing the plans but it doesnt appear to work anymore. I know this was posted a long time ago.. does anyone have a copy?

Thanks 

Maybe this is what you are looking for.

http://bradford.cafnr.org/passive-solar-greenhouse/

Quote from: azgreg on January 19, 2016, 03:43:54 PM
Maybe this is what you are looking for.

http://bradford.cafnr.org/passive-solar-greenhouse/

Thanks so much- it should do the trick 

Reading both of these threads recently, this and the rocket stove water heater http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=13519.0;topicseen  I was thinking about combining the two, building a greenhouse and adding a rocket stove water heater.  In my zone 5 I don't know if the passive alone would work.  I always wanted to build one with a wood stove.  I have seen plans where the flue ran on a shallow slope through the u-shaped growing bed to direct heat the soil.  That might work but I suspect getting it to draft on cold startups would be difficult.  Heating the air with a wood stove would be tough to size for heating overnight.  But using this to heat the black barrel water mass during the day when you were awake to let it release heat overnight seems possible.

Thinking about this further, instead of wasting space in the greenhouse to house the water barrels for thermal mass, would it be more efficient to just make insulated raised beds and basically do "in floor heat" in the beds and use the dirt for thermal mass instead of the water?  Just run the water heater as a loop, heat during the day to release heat at night?  I didn't know if it would be better for the plants to have more stable soil temp using the water barrels or would the fluctuating soil temp not hurt things?   I could make the beds as deep as necessary for mass.  I'm on grid so a recirculating pump isn't an issue.

Our greenhouse has a dark colored 4" slab floor for mass. In our coastal WA climate the greenhouse has never dropped to freezing (when 17º F outside) and is usually between outside and inside temp in winter.