4 Essential Greenhouse Upgrades

[@kenthelliker2112]

I built myself a 16 x 32 ft greenhouse last fall. The north wall and ceiling is insulated to R28 ( this is Alberta ) with the other three walls consisting of triple wall polycarbonate. I installed self opening windows both on the walls and ceiling and this summer the outside temps were as high as 39C..... the greenhouse stayed near to ambient ( which was as good as it gets) thru the convection currents which set up naturally. I've studied and built greenhouses of various designs my whole life and this design employed all I've learned.

[@SimpleTek]

that's awesome that you got ambient temps with convection!!!!!!!!

[@kabbak]

Cool, any pics you can share?

[@TheNightwalker247]

Thank you for the great video. Love the Chinese passiv greenhouse.

[@SimpleTek]

So nice of you

[@mike-ner6645]

I must say. I really enjoy your channel. 😊👍👍

[@SimpleTek]

I appreciate that!

[@normancomeau371]

Super duper! Yes Idea to share Big o pipe in white Self taping screws into top of hoops thdn second layer of poly. Saw this with a menonite tomato grower.

[@SimpleTek]

nice

[@kabbak]

Good info. Any product links or references would be cool. Thanks

[@SimpleTek]

working on it - thank you

[@joeblundell299]

As far as your first point, sure the multiwalled polycarbonaite is more of an upfront cost, but you won't be replacing it every two to four years depending on your wind/snow factors. In addition, I have absolutely no fear during tornadic activity inside my geodesic greenhouse with neigh indestructible polycarbonaite, where as I feel quite vulnerable in a hoop house. I'm am glad that your greenhouse survived a 74 mph an hour wind, but I'm located less than a half mile from the swath the Joplin tornado cut with a 321 kph wind, if I would have been in your greenhouse during that event, I wouldn't be typing this now. Where I live we frequently get microbursts, I lost a nectar peach tree to one just a couple weeks ago, over a 100mph wind gusted out of seemingly no storm and blew everything horizonal for a few seconds. I have friends with hoop houses, and they feel cursed around here, constant repairs, huge holes ripped in the plastic, it really is a rough go for that design with the weather we face around here. Even the commercial ones I pass on the way to Kansas City are constantly in one state of destruction or another. You had also said if your above 70c there wouldn't be anything besides air conditioning that could cool that, I'm willing to bet my design could;) check out thecorehome with my self heating and cooling neigh indestructible greenhouse design.

[@SimpleTek]

You can build anything perfect with unlimited money

[@joeblundell299]

@@SimpleTek Less than $1500 to do polycarbonate on a 500 sq ft backyard geodesic, double it for a 1000 square footer, doesn't feel like an unlimited money scenario. I liked your other suggestions "and had already incorporated all but the blanket", it's just for the world of weather I contend with, thin plastic hoop houses are impractical for small farmers and hobbyist, they end up being more trouble than the people can handle, and are just so easily damaged in high winds, around here I see more of them as dilapidated trash piles in peoples yards than functioning growing spaces. Where as with a geodesic coated with a good Lexan multiwalled polycarbonaite, you'll easily get 30+ years of use, and if you treat the plastic with UV stabilizers, you'll go a lot longer. You also have the added bonus that if the people decide the stop growing food, they still have a great building with a myriad of uses, unlike a hoop house.

[@SimpleTek]

@@joeblundell299 I assume that was pre pandemic pricing. The shipping alone from china would be thot now

[@joeblundell299]

@@SimpleTek It has been a few years since my last build, but my real savings comes from just doing an arch of the greenhouse with the multiwalled about 3/4 the way up, and then the skylight pentagon at the top I do exterior and interior multiwalled, but offsetting the direction of the interior fins, so you get a real nice diffracted sunlight year round all over the space. The north cove is insulated finished structure with a reflective interior, gives great light spring/fall/winter, less in the summer, which helps with the cooling. Where I currently grow I only have 2 acres, and really only 1/4 that where I get sun unblocked by oaks, so the greenhouses I've done have only needing to be for early starting, and keeping some things going through the winter. As far as production year round, I've had amazing luck with hugelkultur raised beds, and now that I think about it, I use a blanket design, unfortunately not yet automated, but with that design I've kept arugula growing at -7 -14 outside, but the -28 last year got me hard all over the yard, I know it sounds crazy, but I made a video called "Fresh Greens in Winter" on my channel where my love is talking about the raised bed outdoor growing. The bed design keeps modifying, but the latest ideation can be found at thegardenersguild or look up the video "How to make raised garden beds with benches" on my channel. I'm planning a new raised bed build, a sloped box design, with diffracted multiwalled lid, and you can be sure I'm going to try to automate some sort of blanket on that, it really could be an amazing heat saver, and would go great with my latest design, we've been insulating our raised bed interiors and getting some great results. I'm hoping to incorporate a project I've been working on with the new build as well. Using a small solar cell and small dc heater, I put the heater in a sealed pvc tube with high moisture content sand. All day long the solar converts nearly 1 to 1 inside the tube, with a small cell only raising the mass a few degrees, but I believe in conjunction with the right night time covering, it could really extend outdoor growing spaces year round viability, commercially for certain crops, and the benefits of being able to let that rain wash through, so revitalizing for the soil.

[@SimpleTek]

@@joeblundell299 sweet

[@andree_nakita]

What about digging into pass the freeze line?

[@SimpleTek]

that works

[@driqbal316]

Great content. I'm wondering if the second poly layer will need to be airtight?

[@SimpleTek]

That is correct, you secure it with 2 pieces of wood or wiggle wire

[@1stcontact590]

Ok, my north wall faces the south and heat from that radiates back into the greenhouse. Is this considered acceptable. I do, at times, have used my sun shade that can cover from all of the greenhouse to the entire greenhouse.

[@halfanacremom3967]

I agree with you about the double inflated poly, but I want to do something different than a blower. What if it is double framed. The poly sits on 2 layers of frame? The only problem is the cavity between the poly might be more than 1 foot. Is it gonna decrease the R value?

[@SimpleTek]

that might work - blowers are cheap though to buy and operate

[@halfanacremom3967]

Do you have to keep the blower on 24 hours?

[@SimpleTek]

@@halfanacremom3967 yes

[@nj6482]

Hey, I’m here in south Louisiana and had a question about insulation the north wall if that made any sense in out mostly hot and humid climates with typically moderate winters. We did have a “cold” snap where temperatures dropped to 20 degrees F for a few days in a row.

[@SimpleTek]

a passive solar greenhouse will solve your problem!

[@nickguthrie9309]

Double poly is best if the 2 layers are only 3-4 inches apart; otherwise the trapped air will roll over and dump the heat. Also, if the winters give you lots of cloud and little clear sunlight, there is no reason to expect added heat: our Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb give us an average of 2 hours daily clear skies.(British Columbia on the coast)

[@SimpleTek]

I get piles of heat even on cloudy days

[@mrmusketier453]

Where can I find a greenhouse like anyone of these ?

[@SimpleTek]

alibaba.com

[@turgutylmaz9366]

What about hail at Double Inflated Poly?

[@SimpleTek]

not an issue - it bounces off

[@albertwilson3396]

Hi Where do you get the co2 machine

[@SimpleTek]

you make it!

[@albertwilson3396]

@@SimpleTek can you do a video on that please

[@SimpleTek]

@@albertwilson3396 soon

[@albertwilson3396]

@@SimpleTek sweet

[@sunc1122]

At present, the large-scale insulation system, in terms of wind protection, can only be the built-in insulation system that is mature

[@SimpleTek]

ok

[@matsv201]

I was thinking. If the blower motor could reverse polarity if it get to hot, One could pretty much change the R-value of the roof, and there for moderate the temperature with hardly any energy

[@SimpleTek]

ok

[@kingmasterlord]

what about a wind powered fan? sure you'll have stuffy days when there's no wind but you'll be spending no power at all versus the low power you'd be spending on electric fans. edit I'm intending on digging down 3 to 6 ft and then doming it over

[@SimpleTek]

interesting

[@objektivone3209]

💓

[@AG-yb1lm]

No. 5 SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHTING! Find LED full spectrum with 200 lumen per watt rating , or as close to that as possible. Regards.

[@SimpleTek]

true in winter

[@nadeem5476]

nonsense

[@nadeem5476]

@@SimpleTek comment reported