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Greenhouses & Garden Structures

Insulating glass greenhouse with film

15 years ago

It's a single pane tempered glass greenhouse build by my father in law and I with old sliding doors. It's great, I love it. I noticed that light coming directly through the glass was burning foliage, so I put up large bubble wrap (have a close full of this stuff for free) to defuse the light, which works really really well. Mist the glass, and the bubble wrap clings really good.

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My question is this:

Should I take down the bubble wrap and install a greenhouse film on the frame so that there is about 1.5 inches of airspace between the glass and the film? (wall + roof)

IF so, would a layer of clear film and the glass combined defuse enough light to prevent the burning?

AND would the film be the most beneficial (cool and warm season) on the inside (two layer, glass outside), or outside (two layer, film outside) or BOTH (three layer, film, glass, film)?

Keeping in mind there would be 1.5 inch air spaces between glass and film.

Be worth the cost? bubble wrap is ugly, and really does not insulate since it's just on one side of the greenhouse.

Here is a link that might be useful: More about my greenhouse & containers

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Comments (2)

birdwidow
15 years ago
No, it's not really pretty, but if you line the entire interior with bubble it will not only diffuse the light, it will add insulating qualities as it's the air trapped in the bubbles that insulate and why so many GH owners use it, but the lighter weight bubble we tend to have on-hand from packaging isn't going to last very long. Sealing all of the glass on the exterior, leaving a 1.5" space would be even better- IF you can seal it well enough to insure that the air is really trapped. However, film on the exterior won't last even as long as lightweight packing bubble and be impossible to clean.

If you have a means of installing them, in the long run, permanent storm panels would be the most cost effective option and give you close to the equilant of thermopanes. Single pane safety glass is relatively cheap and given some carpentry skill and a bench saw with a dado blade, making non-operable storm panels is easy.

For light diffusion, most of us use sunshades. I needed additional sun screening on one end of my GH and used semi-sheer white window panel curtains from a thrift shop and held them in place between the polybars (studs) with spring loaded curtain rods. I spent no more than $5.00 for enough semi-sheers to completely cover a 12 ft. wall. Of course, they weren't gathered nicely as they would be on a window in a decorated room in the house, but they worked wonderfully to diffuse sunlight in my GH.

The problem with trying to make an innexpensive garden GH both tightly insulated against both direct sun/heat and cold attractive, is that sans very expensive triple pane, coated thermos, we need to suppliment and that supplimental insulation is rarely an attractive addition. Done right, it can be highly effective, but hardly attractive.

BTW: One shade option glass GH owners have that is denied to those of us with polycarb, is good old fashoned whitewash. It's cheap to buy, easy to apply and remove and also control for the amount of opaqueness by the simple means of thinning it and/or applying multiple coats. Also not pretty, but again; effective.
imstillatwork
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the thoughts. I'm going to see what I can find as far as uv treated films go that might last longer. The way the frame is, I can seal up another layer pretty easily. I have so much bubble wrap, and can get more for free, that I might just use it for the rest of this year and figure it out next year.
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After I posted earlier, I went back to your original post again, then your photo, and realized that your GH will be 12 ft. long, not 16. My bad. Sorry, but does that mean the windows are more or less 2 @ 4 ft. and 2 @ 2 ft? If so, that makes the blinds even cheaper. Winter insulation at night? Well, if you know you will be there to open and close them morning and night; why not yet another trip to a window dressing dept. for some cheap washable insulated drapes? Or, if you are as handy with a sewing machine as you are with woodworking tools, buy the fabric and whip them up yourself. Insulating the back wall: 2 inch thick, Type 150 foam is one possibility. It's sturdy, waterproof, highly insulating and you could mount vinyl pegboard against it, to allow you to put shelves were and whenever you like, then move them at will, along with lots and lots of hooks, to hang all of the little tools you will be using around the GH and driving yourself nuts if you can't find just the one you want, when you want it. A well organized GH makes using in it so much nicer, but you can't put tools back in their place unless they HAVE a place and it's a lot easier to find a particular one if they are all hung out in full view, as opposed to being piled into a box. Been there and done that in our garden shed, then learned to love pegboard and- plastic slip ties, to make nice big easy to use loops by running it through those silly little holes mfg. put in tool handles, as if anyone had the time or patience to wrestle them on and off J hooks.
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I was reluctant but after reading and hearing the facts this is an easy decision. The treated film will typically cost 20% more than the untreated. It is meant to only be used on the inner layer so you can save a little over the cost of both layers. You've probably noticed the advantages of two layers. That payback is much easier to see than a IR coated advantage but the IR coated film will also disperse light and reflect heat back to plants better than convevtional inner layer. If the initial expense is burdomsome consider that the film will probably last a few more years just because you are using 2 films. I had conventional 2-layer film on one small greenhouse that lasted 14 years. I recovered it with 2 layers and a layer of bubblewrap sandwiched between, inflating on both sides. I also recovered my 20' structure with 2 layers last year but neglected to get the inner IR coated layer. This year my 30' structure is showing a few tears so I ordered the Tufflite Infrared for the inner layer. Looking back on the facts I don't know why I waited so long. I would bet that in 5 years the costs of replacement will be at least 50% higher. One speaker at a recent seminar broke the costs into a per/year basis. If you look at it that way the expense is minimal and returns are supposed to offset costs in the first year.
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nomadh wrote: It seems that in San Diego I should be able to keep a greenhouse a nice warm temp all year without power. Unless you have something for storing heat like barrels of water and insulate the greenhouse with a solar pool cover the greenhouse will eventually take on the outside temperture if it stays low for any lenght of time. Greenhouses do heat up in the day time well above the outside temperture but that heat is quickly lost if not stored. Also in the summer without ventilation the tempertures can exceed 120 degrees or more. Natural ventilation is not enough unless you remove the sidewalls and have roof vents and a very good shade cloth. You also will need some way to circulate the air for the health of the plants and the tortise. Do you plan on using solar fans? With good insulation and heat storage you should be able to gain 5 or 6 degrees which would be ok as long as you don't go below 40 outside.
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