Family builds green house around house for extra heat

I can't decide if this is a brilliant idea, or a stupid idea. I'm leaning toward stupid. It probably has the desired effect during winter, but it's got to be way more expensive than normal (and still very effective) methods of insulating your home. Seems like it'd be miserable in the summer. The only thing I like so far is that the exterior of the house would theoretically stay nicer, longer. I'm only a few minutes into the video right now, so sorry in advance if it turns out to be 20 minutes of pure stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ghnDOFbNQ

At one point they say that it can be -2 Celsius (28.5 F) outside, and be 20 Celsius (68 F) on their "roof." At first I was impressed, until I realized that I've sat in my house all this week working from home and it's been about 20-28 F outside, and my house easily maintained 68 F by itself with only me in it all day long.

I was in one of the larger green houses, in Longmont, today. No heating system and it was comfortable to warm. Walking through the plants thinking "I could live in here". It was a little humid because of the side humidifiers. If I thought a green house could be that nice in the winter, at my house, I'd build one. Even around the house. It could block the wind.

All I can imagine is mold, mildew, and wood rot.

It's just like living in Florida

I watched a good part of the video on another website.
They don't seem like stupid people at all, pretty sure they have quite a few things figured out regarding humidity and excess heat.
What I found hard to believe was the 84k cost. Seems like it would have been quite a bit more as elaborate as it is.

Oh hail...

All I can think of is hailstorms.

People who live in glass houses...

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Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

People who live in glass houses...

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...listen to Billy Joel?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fN%2BUTdB0L.jpg

Wait, are they saying that the greenhouse effect is a good thing? I was almost ready to believe global warming was bad, then I went outside. I can't wait, I need a couple of palm trees in my yard.

The only way this would work is if you could cover it during the summer. It would take a lot of energy to cool that thing to a tolerable level. So you make it nice in the winter and miserable in the summer, what do you gain?

I think it could be a good idea for a small house up in the mountains where it never gets very hot. If you were down in the lower elevations it might work if the entire thing could be opened and the roof covered in the summer.

I haven't watched the video yet, but I've seen this making the rounds on Facebook.

I can't decide if it's clever or just asking for trouble.

Hailstorms were he first thing that came to mind- then again, I know the hailstorms that come through Colorado are a particularly ruthless shade of suck compared to other states.

Do they have a lot of birds fly into the glass?

I suppose if it were in an isolated area, there'd be little trouble with punk kids throwing stones or vandals tagging the glass. The heat in the summertime would be one big area of concern, as would a house fire. How is the fire department supposed to put out a blaze if the whole thing is covered in glass?

The roof opens to regulate heat. I think the idea is obviously sound, just seems like needlessly reinventing the wheel.

"Security Glass" sounds like it's all tempered glass above.

They have a fairly self-sustaining system, waste water treatment, etc.

Built with ballistic glass, this might be a preppers dream! haha

Stockholm is lucky to see 80 degrees in the summer. This is not for us.

Denver latitude - 39.7392° N

Stockholm latitude - 59.3294° N

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Originally Posted by crashdown

What I found hard to believe was the 84k cost.

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Stockholm, Sweden. Not much of anything is cheap in Scandinavia.

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Originally Posted by Gman

Stockholm is lucky to see 80 degrees in the summer. This is not for us.

Denver latitude - 39.7392° N

Stockholm latitude - 59.3294° N

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39.7392° N at 5280 ft, you're right ... but head due west and get up over 7-8k feet and it looks like a much better idea.

With energy conservation, I always look at how long it takes to get your investment back. I'm in construction, so I get to see lots of buildings built with geothermal fields. The field for a recent school cost $380k. I bet you the school gets demoed before the district gets their money back in heating bills. How long can you heat a home in Scandinavia for $80k?

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Originally Posted by Jamnanc

With energy conservation, I always look at how long it takes to get your investment back. I'm in construction, so I get to see lots of buildings built with geothermal fields. The field for a recent school cost $380k. I bet you the school gets demoed before the district gets their money back in heating bills. How long can you heat a home in Scandinavia for $80k?

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My thought was how much would it have cost to install the best insulation in the house, as well as increasing the thermal mass of the home so the temperature swings are slower.

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Originally Posted by Irving

My thought was how much would it have cost to install the best insulation in the house, as well as increasing the thermal mass of the home so the temperature swings are slower.

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To the homeowner in this video, it seems to be much more than just the cold weather thermal enhancement, there's certainly cheaper and more cost beneficial methods. They can be "outside" in their greenhouse, grow stuff that's convenient, etc. Can't knock them for that if they can afford to do it.

They did concede that there's more to be done, particularly creating thermal mass/storage for more stable temps. They should take it a step further and capture the sun for their electricity needs as well.

I saw that as well. I think probably the title of the video is misleading and not fair to the people actually in the video. Being outside/inside during the winter would be awesome. The title sells the whole idea short.

There's been a lot more people that've pissed away a lot more money than that on crazier shit.