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Pricing Greenhouses

  • #21
Tony - just found your Greenhouse Construction thread. Wow! That's pretty inspiring. I won't be working on that scale any time soon but it gives me stuff to think about. dustin, you say your greenhouse is at least four feet into the ground - are you talking about foundation or did you excavate and sink it? I've been thinking about using a sunken floor to cut back on heating costs.
~Joe
 
  • #22
the posts that make the sides of the greenhouse are in the ground, there are 6 of them/3 on each side, they were like 8 or 9ft posts and we used a drill not sure what its called, to drill holes in the ground and then we put the posts in at about 4ft which made the shelve unit things about 4ft tall. ill get pics possibly tomorrow
 
  • #23
Tony..... would u say that using this: a 6' x 4' greenhouse INDOORS (http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HG-ES) is a good choice than me trying to go for a terrarium style with a 4' x 2' tank? The tank is very expensive. I like this greenhouse...but my concern is...if I use it....what kind of lighting do I need? Will a 2 x 4' 2 lamp T8 suffice if I cover every panel with mylar?

Also...the issue is.... is this greenhouse disassemblable and reassemble easily?? I will be moving in a yr so I don't want to invest in something which is a one time assembly.

thanks,

V


I think that would be pretty darn cool indoors lol
6' wide you could go with a 2' walk in the middle with a 2' wide U shape bench (sidewalls and backwall)

I would imagine that it goes together fairly easily. You are correct though in your concern about proper lighting. I don't think regular shoplight fixtures will do unless you are prepared to use a few of them on each side and hang them so they are close to the plants. If you wanted to have something higher towards the top then you would need something like a 400w metal halide or perhaps better a couple 250w metal halides to distribute the light better. You might be able to use those 100w fluorex fixtures? They put out alot of light so could be mounted up higher. I think if you were to use them you would still want four fixtures, two on each sidewall.

Here is a link to the fluorex fixture so you can see what I am talking about. I think I heard someone say that Homedepot carries them? http://www.esplighting.com/92102.html
 
  • #24
thanks Tony. Yeah! it would be really very very cool. But issue is with room indoors + also the fact that as a student I will be moving regularly....my next move is for sure an yr or so away...but nevertheless...it will be a full move. I remember Andrew telling me that some greenhouses once fitted together cannot can refitted after a take down due to the loss of screw hole friction etc...basically most are meant for one time assembly. But would u think this can be reassembled after disassembly??

yeah! ur flood light fixture looks really cool. What do u think about T5??
 
  • #25
Sorry for my delay on replying here- but Tony is much more knowledgeable than me on this anyway :p but here is some information from me anywho.

As far as expandable my first greenhouse comes in an expandable manner. 8x12 can be taken to 8x16 for $1000 this greenhouse is on the expensive side though- just under $3k for the 8x16x10 greenhouse. The construction is redwood and was very easy to build. I love how it looks and it's very sturdy! the main downside (for me) is the high peaked roof we don't have snow to worry about so all that does is makes the edges of the g/h too short to have full height shelves (which brings me to shelving... I like freestanding shelving. I've already had to move it all around many times to make more room) The greenhouse I'm talking of is made by Sunshine and I really do like it (even though they won't let me sell them :crazy: ).

My foundation is not sunken (raised filled with rock).

As of now it is ran by extension cords but this year at some time my main g/h will finally be ran with power but that doesn't help the sake of conversation now :p.

I also don't really use any vents or fans since it is so hot and dry here blowing in hot dry air to expel hot humid air really doesn't do any good. So all my ventilation is done via my swamp cooler.

I do have a generator but it is not set for automated back up I think it's a Troy-Bilt 5500w but that really needs to "match" your draw, so use some calculators to see what kind of back up power you would need.

My swamp cooler is a "portable" master cool swamp cooler http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=215791-420-MMB12A&lpage=none (I assume your normal conditions are pretty humid so a swamp cooler probably won't work for you) but this is the thermostat system that I've installed on it to make it automated: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=155861-420-CC2000

We barely get cool (just started my heater last week) so my heater is small. I have one oil filled heater used when it isn't needed to start the propane heater and also to supplement the propane heater (on the other side of the g/h) when it does start getting cooler. Right now I have a solar fusion heater but I don't think it was really the right choice. http://products.desatech.com/product_info.php?products_id=514 (has a built in thermostat) I've decided something with a blower would be better to distribute the heat. Right now i have a fan at the roof blowing down since all the heat just goes up to the peak.... It has worked fine- but before I was only heating a part of the g/h. more on that later. I have already ran natural gas to the g/h so perhaps next year I'll pick up a new natural gas heater.

Up until this winter I have always partitioned off my greenhouse to have one side for temperate stuff and the other for tropical. The side the cooler blew into was the cool side then a partition and the heater on the other side. The problem with this for me, is even in the winter our days here are pretty warm. So without any cooling on the warm stuff it would get hot (over 100 easily) so I was always playing a balancing act of opening / closing the partition to allow some cool air to come over to keep that side from over heating but at the same time heat would go over to the cool side... it just never really worked well. so this year I built a second greehouse, a cheaper one (just like vraev showed actually) it was DIFFICULT to build (took longer than my larger redwood one) and the rubber they give for insulation is a joke. If you want to seal it buy 6 tubes of silicone.

I also know nothing about a heat exchanger composter... sorry.

Both of my greenouses are 4mm twin wall polly and I really like the stuff. I like that you can't really see into the greenhouse, I like the efficiency of it but I love the way it diffuses the light. Refer to this page for information on that. as far as longevity... my sunshine greenhouse has a 5 year full warranty and a 5 year prorated warranty but is said to be used for 30 years in Europe with no discoloration (from their site) on my new (cheaper) greenhouse (it's nice having my wife work as lowes and getting special order stuff at cost +10% :D ) there is said to have 12 year warranty on the poly. I did have one panel go yellow on my sunshine and they sent me a replacement right away. On the other hand, I have heard some discussion about the g/h from Harbor freight yellowing and cracking in just a few years under stronger sun of Arizona/Texas etc. So make sure you buy quality poly if you're going that way.


I think that's all I had to say at this point!
Andrew
 
  • #26
Some excellent points Andrew. Alot of which has to do with the differing needs based on where your are located and how your climate can vary. Those swamp coolers are great. I had one on a small greenhouse when I was growing up. And as you mention the greenhouse needed no other exhaust fans, just vents to let the warm air out as it was pushed by the inflow from the swamp cooler, which can move alot of air.

You are also in an area where the swamp coolers work really well at cooling and your days are quite warm so cooling is your primary concern.

It is good to have the perspectives from folks with smaller hobby sized structures. They can often be more challenging to control environmental conditions because the smaller air volumes change more rapidly, and much of the equipment on the market is designed for large scale operations.

Some notes on Polycarbonate panels as well as GH poly plastic. I use a light diffusing poly also. It lets me use shade cloth that doesn't block as much light. This in turn lets more light intensity into the greenhouse which the plants like, but it's diffuse so it doesn't burn plants easily. The other thing is to pay attention to which side is out. Polycarbonate and GH poly usually has the UV layer on one side only and it must face outwards! And make sure you buy from companies that produce it specifically to weather the UV for greenhouse application.


Vraev.. maybe you can talk to the manufacturer and find out how the supports are put together and how the panels are attached? Polycarbonate can either be screwed directly on through the panel or brackets can be put on the structure which hold the panels.
Maybe consider making something up with 1x2's and just sheet the poly over the outside? You could use screws to hold the lumber together and staple the poly on the outside. Indoors out of the sun you could just use the stuff from the hardware store and since you are moving in the near term future just replace the poly with new stuff after the move.
 
  • #27
yeah, as Tony says there is definitely a "out side" on the panels. I think that's what happened to the one panel that yellowed on my main g/h. I think they put one panel on back wards. And when I built the 2nd g/h the panels were not pre installed. so we had to peal the protective layers off paying attention to the out side.


A comment on Vraev's set up... I suggested a "portable" greenhouse to him since they're easy to take apart and move but he's not interested since he wants it to look really good (being in his living room or whatever) There were a few parts that were put on incorrectly on my new g/h (wife reading instructions to me...:gasp: ) and taking them apart and putting them back together it just didn't feel like it could do that many times (the screws just go into holes slightly smaller than the screw) although the panels just slide down into the channels.

Andrew
 
  • #28
OK, so a little update. It was foggy and getting dark when I got out there, so I wasn't able to get pictures. The plot is on a slope; a 12x8 greenhouse is doable, but probably not anything bigger. With terraces I could maybe connect some if I oriented them along the hill. On the bright side, it would probably be easy to sink the floor. The owners sounded interested in the idea of building a composter (especially with two dozen chickens on the property.) Not at home and typing on my phone right now, but I'll try to add some more details later.
~Joe
 
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