Kathryn wrote:
>I'm surprised you haven't mentioned hotbeds for greenhouse heating.
Yeah, it makes one wonder what else i forgot to mention <grin>.
I agree the use of hotbeds is a good idea and another area that
should have been mentioned is cooling a greenhouse. If one does
not design for cooling the greenhouse becomes unusable quick.
Let's see.. cooling techniques i have used are:
- shade cloth
- thermal mass
- fans
- doors, vents, roll up sides
- fixed awnings with block summer sun only
For heating a greenhouse there is a lot that can be said
about insulation. In this area double walled plastic is
common. Another good technique is to minimize the glass
and insulate the north wall and sides. Double pane glass
also helps.
>I use straw
>bale sides and salvaged glass windows on top inside a conventional
>polythene tunnel.
I read somewhere that the poly tunnels built low to the ground
are much warmer than conventional greenhouses. Sounds like a good
way to go.
(No space in lean to conservatory which gets waste heat
>from house and my 30 foot greenhouse met one gale too many last autumn - we
>haven't got up the courage to start disassembling the remains yet. It will
>take scaffolding to do it and stay alive and there are too many other
>spring jobs.)
Ah... spring. I wonder why life becomes more interesting in the
spring. Hundreds of projects suddenly become fascinating and
the time flies by. I just started reading the book Don Bowen
mentioned a few weeks ago and it is great. Next to Don's book
are three other good books. Sigh...
jeff
