Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 11:39:16 EDT From: MCATALANI@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3065$foo@default> Subject: Re: Greenhouses
>I bought a sturdibuilt greenhouse years ago. It was redwood and glass, and
was 11feet by 14 feet. Very very nice, but expensive, and I immediately ran
out of room. I loved it, but was impractical for nepenthes.
Why is it impractical for Nepenthes?>>
Mainly because the glass did not diffuse the light. I had to keep the
nepenthes growing under the benches to keep leaf burn down. I could have
bought diffusers or used the white paint. The other problem was it's size. I
had to keep the nepenthes pruned more than i wanted to because there was just
no room for them to grow. I ugess it was mostly impractical for nepenthes
because i could buy a much larger house that came with all the options I need
to grow nepenthes, for the same or less money.
>Glass greenhouses are more difficult to heat due to the number
of pieces of glass and the way they're installed.
It sounds like it is more due to the glass not being very good insulators. >>
Well that and the fact that the walls and roof was made up of 1 foot glass
squares. Each piece of glass overlapped the other, so you had spaces in
between. If you look carefully at some of the pictures on the sturdi-built
site, you can see the glass pieces. Don't get me wrong, I loved their
greenhouse, it was just a little impracticle for the area here in Memphis to
grow nepenthes.
<< Wow! 22' x 45' is huge! I was looking at something like 8' x 16'.
What kind of film are you using? Do you know its R rating? What kind of
heating and cooling system do you have? >>
The film covering is probably one of the better "effective" insulators on the
market. It is a two sheet system that utilizes a blower to keep air in
between the two layers. I say it's one of the better "effective" insultators
because film is in a continous sheet. There are no holes or gaps in between
or where pieces join like you have with glass and polycarbonate. My sidewalls
are twinwall polycarbonate, and they are excellent insulators. WIth
polycarbonate, you would have to carefully seal each of the joints, for
failing to do this would kill your effective insulating value.
Polycarbonate is much more expensive than film and takes a considerable
amount of time to install. My film is rated for 4 years, costs less than
$250, and I can install it in about 20 minutes. If you want to go with an
excellent long term solution, and are willing to put the time and money into
it, polycarbonate is a great choice. But I wouldn't rule out film, because I
have found it to be an excellent choice and a good insululator. The heater
is a 125 BTU Reznor, although a 75 BTU Reznor would work as well here. The
cooling system is a 2' x 12' Coolair evaporative cooler. It works extremely
well in a 45' greenhouse, but if I went with a 96', the cooler would have to
be 3 to 4 times this size.
Michael Catalani
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