Greenhouse Re design with Electrical and Water sources added

OK...so the first go around on the greenhouse was pretty good, but after completing the structure and closing the door, with the door insert window open of course, the temperature soared to a whopping 135 degrees inside the greenhouse....not good for man or greens. So back to the drawing board, and after several hours of research I discovered that while I had approx 12 sqft of ventilation, I really needed at least 10 percent on the sides of the building and 15 percent at the ridge based on the square footage of the greenhouse which is approximately 240 square feet. While the 500 CFM solar attic fan took care of the ridge requirement  the three 4 sq ft windows in the side walls were not adequate for cross ventilation, so I was off to make some adjustments...major ones. I had to remove a total of 6 PVC panels on the south facing side of the building and turn them into windows as seen below. This provided another 24 sq ft of ventilation.

 

After further testing, this only reduced the temp in the greenhouse by about 10-15 degrees, still not enough, so the next step was to cut two openings in the north facing wall to allow for more airflow across the greenhouse. These openings were turned into shutters rather than windows for protection against northern winter winds and will be insulated as time permits, both openings were cut out to approximately 2ft x 4ft, for another 16 sq ft of ventilation. This dropped the inside temp to the ambient outside temp when all ventilation was opened. I also fitted barrel bolts to all openings in order to secure them when closed....here is a pic of the north side of the greenhouse.

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House screening was placed on all openings for pest control. Next I was off to run the electric to the building, this of course took me a couple of days to complete.I have 4 -110v 20A outlets, three inside the building and one outside the building as shown above and below.

A photo of the florescent light I installed.

I also had to dig an 8inch deep 60ft trench and place 12-2 UGF wiring to the building which took the longest...especially in the 100+ degree heat...whew!!! was it hot. Next came the water line, where I dug a 2ft deep trench 35ft to the house in order to tie into the backyard faucet. I placed 3 hose bibbs inside the the greenhouse for convenience with two being on stand pipes (see photo above) and the third being at ground level so I can drain the water out of the system when needed for repair or due to freezing temps in the winter.

Well, thats pretty much it for this post...now that the greenhouse is complete I can move on to the next phase building my aeroponics/aquaponics systems...more on that in the next post.

The sewing of Romaine Lettuce and Collard Greens

Aquaponics is amazing....after sowing several dozen Romaine lettuce seeds of various varieties. I was surprised to find that after 3 days most of the seeds had sprouted. This is truly amazing considering that normal germination for these seeds type is 7-10 days. I also did the same with a pack of Collard Green seeds and unexpectedly these also sprouted in 3 days while normal germination is 10-21 days. I have included a few photos to show the new babies.

 You can see the new lettuce sprouts next to the new Bell Pepper plants in the pic above.

 A closer view, Im going to have to cull a few of these as they get bigger.

And yet more....

Here is a shot of the collard sprouts.

I also had a Basil harvest this past weekend due to the fact that the plants were starting to get lengthy and falling over. I cut these back and dried the leaves. I still have quite a few younger plants for fresh cut leaves when needed.

Next post  to follow will provide an overview the new solar hot water panel I put together to heat the fish tank water.