The weather outside may be turning to winter, but Cody resident Karl Lampe has no intention of letting that get between him and his wife’s fruit. The couple is building a geothermal greenhouse at their home that they believe features a revolutionary design. A geothermal greenhouse is a partially subterranean structure that relies on the natural heat of the earth to heat and cool what’s growing inside.
His inspiration for the project, Lampe said, is simply to please his wife, who already keeps a small domed greenhouse on their property. “It’s going to be awesome,” said Lynn Lampe with a smile. One of the major challenges that greenhouses present is not staying warm in the winter but cooling down during the hot summer months.
“All of a sudden, you have a 95-degree day, you go in there, and your tomatoes don’t come back,” Lampe explained. Geothermal farming itself isn’t a new concept and has been allowing people to successfully grow tropical fruits in cold winter climates. What makes Lampe’s 1,836-square-foot greenhouse unique is that it will use a complex circulation system that filters in both hot and cold air from the ground and is self-controlled automatically.
There will be separate distribution systems for the hot and cold air, which will flow out of small adjustable tubes jutting from the base of the greenhouse. The unique project is being built by Mike Poulsen, a fellow Cody resident and owner of Alpine Botanica, a construction company that specializes in greenhouses. Lampe designed the concept and then handed it off to Poulsen for implementation.
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