This would totally work. I would add a trombe wall in it as well. Construct the north wall with intact bottles filled with water stacked horizontally and painted black. The sun will heat up that wall and the water will retain the heat through the night. The detailing wouldn't be too hard for a tight structure. I've put trombe walls in buildings with great success.
Well, you could have it on a floor or wide stand (not legs, that would increase the point load) if you limited it to around 200lbs-250lbs. Say-50 bottles running approx 4lbs ea. stacked 3 wide would use a similar load as a human/per s.f. That would be acceptable for most decent framing. (Im thinking of the piano leg collapsing through the White House floor when Harry Truman played it right now
I think you are supposed to wrap plastic over it, once it's built. The bottles act as a layer of insulation during cold nights. Plus this adds stability to the structure. Just my guess.
Yes, plastic sheeting might be easier. I believe the point of using the bottles is to use recycled/re-purposed materials.
I don't see why you would need to cover this with plastic afterward, maybe in really cold climates. But for most applications I think this would be insulated enough as is. Now I just need to figure out how many bottles I need for the 12x20 greenhouse the wife and I want to construct...3000 or so?
Are to have some 55 gallon blue water barrels painted black with PVC pipe run to containers for veggies. And run solar heated water through the PVC which is buried in the soil near the plants to warm them. Also, some kind of top cover at night to keep some heat in.
I considered a trombe wall with bottles full of Glauber's salt solution cast into concrete and painted black. May still try that this spring, because the salt will actually hold heat better than the sheer concrete mass....
i did this last spring and it works but the bottles get brittle and start breaking from i guess UV radiation...lasted the spring/summer but i had to take all the bottles down and throw them away about july. i didnt ask my 'bottle donor' to save her bottles and i couldnt get the greenhouse fixed for winter........it is a lot of work also. i think i will stick to plastic sheeting next spring.
Prime enemy of that kind of plastic is a combination of UV light and temperature change. If you can keep 'em out of the sunshine, it helps a lot for their longevity. Put up full of salt solution to hold heat inside a black box, they will last for a long time. If you are willing to rebuild each season, it is a valid way to do business.
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