Swedish family surrounds home with greenhouse to keep it warm!
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (PNN) - December 11, 2015 - Here’s an idea: grow food year-round and keep your house warm during the winter months by surrounding your abode with a greenhouse! That’s what a Swedish family has done.
A family near Stockholm renovated an existing summer home and added a greenhouse structure outfitted with 4-millimeter single-pane glasses around it.
The innovative concept was first proposed by Swedish architect Bengt Warne back in the 1970’s. Called the Naturhus (“Naturehousing”), the design works as a “sun collector” of sorts, where the cyclic flows of nature are utilized for producing energy, cleaning water and air, and generating things like compost. It works great in the Scandinavian climate.
The owners of the unique home, Marie Granmar and Charles Sacilotto, were inspired by Warne’s work when they built their own version of the Naturhus abode years ago. They began by purchasing a property with an existing summer home and then installed a conventional greenhouse around it. In total, it cost about $84,000 USD.
The family’s home follows the same principles as Warne’s. They built their own centrifugal wastewater treatment system that separates urine from the solids, which is then purified by plants and then sent to their garden. In addition, the greenhouse allows them to lengthen their gardening season, enabling them to grow Mediterranean plants like figs. Perhaps the best part? It also helps them cut down on the costs of heating.
The home’s exterior spaces can now be used year-round, whereas previously they were exposed to the elements.
This out-of-the-box greenhouse idea not only keeps the family’s house warm, it also protects it from weathering due to the elements.
While the concept would not work in extremely hot and sunny climates (it’s meant for the colder, northern climates), it may be a viable alternative to cut heating bills and to extend the growing season.
