Two greenhouse-type kiln designs, originally proposed by Plumptre (1979) and Gough (1981), have been described in sufficient detail for their dimensions and the materials used in their construction to be analysed in some detail. These greenhouse-type designs are inexpensive to build relative to external-collector designs and typically consist simply of a frame covered with a glazing material. The design proposed by Plumptre (1979) appears to have the lowest amount of embodied energy and carbon emitted per unit capacity of timber. A sensitivity analysis has shown that the amount of embodied energy and carbon emitted for the Gough design are less sensitive to uncertainties in the construction. However, even allowing for these larger uncertainties in the energy requirements for the design proposed by Plumptre (1979), the energy requirements per unit volume of timber for his design are still significantly less than those for the Gough one.