Let me try again

Here is a link that might be useful: More photos

Sorry, the above didn't work out. Here's another pic

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:300083}}

You lucky rascal!

Looks great.

Dax

I am ashamed to say that my idea of fun would be to take a week off, come to Ohio, and help you finish building that puppy.

That will certainly help with your heating bills too!

Hey Stress! Welcome to Ohio man!! :)

wow. thats going to turn out nice.

Five weeks since you posted. How's it looking now?

Ahhh...I can only dream of something so magnificent!

MeMo

Ohiojay: I found your older pictures... nice looking greenhouse frame on the side of your home! The pictures don't show any covering. I'm interested in knowing what you decided to use as covering. I've got a freestanding greenhouse up, and am trying to decide on polycarbone twinwall or corrugated.

Sorry...I haven't been keeping up with the posts on this forum. Here's some of the latest shots.
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And here's some of the inside:
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It's been up and running for the last 2-3 weeks. The electrical stuff was a pain in the butt. Two big circulating fans in upper opposite corners with speed controller on the wall. We ran all the electric thru the back wall of the house, out and in thru the main rib spars on the ceiling to help conceal things. This shot you can see some of the finished work we did with the wiring coming out of the wall and into the ribs. There's wires going into every single rib! You can also see one of the thermistors and the humidistat hanging down. The rails for the stairs are history. I put them in only to pass inspection.
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Here's another shot
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We have a ceiling fan in the center with light, some general purpose lighting. One power window and two powered roof fan vents. A high pressure fogger for keeping the humidity sky high. All of this controlled by a Bartlett greenhouse controller. What a cool item! Watching different items kick on at a certain temp and the fogger kicking on when the humidity falls to a certain point. I'm still amazed that I got all of it going...cause I didn't! A electrician buddy helped me out. All the relays and power boxes and..and..and..you get the picture. But I love it, the plants love it. A little more sunshine during the day would be nice. All I have to do is solve my heating issue and I'll be set. Thanks for the interest. J

The green house is bad a$$. I wonder if I will ruin my key board with the drool coming off my lower lip. That is one of the nicest attached ghouses I have ever seen. It appears everything was done right the first time. Again nice job. I am inspired.

Jay, it is glass, correct? Did you have someone cut all the glass for you? There is sun in the pictures, IÂm curious why you say "a little more sunshine during the day would be nice". What are you plans for that smaller tree off to the side, is it or will it shade too much?

That greenhouse is one to die for. What a beauty. ItÂs big enough to grow a dwarf avocado, a small citrus, and some patio chairs to be able to sit inside! IÂm dreaming of sitting in your greenhouse as I write! Thank you for sharing, it is inspiring!

Kitty...yes, it is glass. Double pane, insulated low-e. The structure was designed to my specs by Sunshine Rooms in Kansas. I say my specs but standard pieces were used where they could be. I wanted the door in front during the whole process. Now I'm sort of wishing I put it on the patio side. I am going to have to put a sliding door drip edge up to keep rain from pouring down the front and inside when I open the door! Bad planning on my part.

As for the River Birch on the side? It's gone already! These pics were taken on a nice day in Sept. It's Friday and I don't believe we've seen the sun all week yet.

Sitting inside would be nice if I wasn't keeping the humidity so high. I'm in there constantly working and messing around...no time to sit! Besides, a table and chairs would take up plant space!! Can't have that!

After chatting with Orchiddude, I went ahead and purchased one of those 30K btu blue flame ventless heaters. This should keep it warm at least until the brutal stuff hits. I was calculated out at 66K btu's. This will do until we get something more permanent figured out.

Thanks all for the kind words.

Jay,

I thought you said you were out of room! You've got tons of room! I'll show you "out of room." In a year you'll be pushing banana leaves out of the way to walk down the stairs.

Nice dragonfruit trellis. Nice beer fridge ;-)

My wife and I were walking around the house complaining that it was really cool. The greenhouse was actually 4* warmer than the inside of our house! I won't turn the heat on inside yet I've been heating the greenhouse at night. Twisted eh?

The only reason I have room at this time is everything is still pretty small in there! Do plants like beer?

4*? Is this a new rating scheme?

If you take this thought to its logical end, you'll realise that your house is a waste of space and you will convert it into another greenhouse. "Everywhere is so open, there's nowhere safe to dress."

Jay, couple more questions for ya...the Bartlett controller is supposed to have the ability to turn off the HAF fans when the exhaust fan comes on. Did you set it up that way? Did you set up the line voltage from the relay box to power outlets, or did you hard wire the stuff? I hard wired the intake shutters, but everything else uses an outlet, and that comes in handy. It also has a dehumidification function if you got the humidity probe ($100 I think); I didn't get the humidity probe, but if the humidity is too high for you, that might be useful.

Let's see a pic of the relay box/controller.

My plants like beer.

The HAF fans are hooked up to a speed controller set in the wall of the house out there. It is not connected to the greenhouse controller. They stay on 24/7 during the cold months to keep air moving inside so there are no cool spots or areas higher in humidity than elsewhere. When the temp really drops, I set them on high.

The power window is set to open first if temps rise. If temp continues to rise, then the first roof vent/fan kicks on. This allows for fresh air to be drawn in. A second fan then kicks on if needed. The fogger drops the temps as well.

Here's some shots of the electrical stuff. This first pic is where I got things set up for my electrician friend.
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Shot of the relays. I would never have figured that crap out!
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This is the Bartlett controller. The two green bundles hanging below are for the thermistors. The gray one to the right is for the humidistat. I didn't get a shot of the power window controller we attached to the side of the relay box. That even gave my buddy a headache getting figured out!
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I finally got a shot of the fogger in action. Fog on fog off!
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The first time this thing ever kicked on like this I had all my tools and things scattered all over the greenhouse. I'm screaming at my wife to come help me get them in before everything gets wet. Within a few moments, we couldn't see a foot in front of our face! Today was very dry out and it was kicking on a lot.
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I love the fog pics Jay!

John

Awesome Greenhouse!

Were you able to get one of those "low-interest mortgages" based on the plans? (ha-ha!)

It looks like the framing is all metal (steel?).

The only fault that I can see is that it lacks a "dumb waiter" (ala Thomas Jefferson) to be sure that the "beer fridge" doesn't run low!

GREAT JOB! (It is obvious that you did considerable thinking and planning before beginning construction!)

-Junkmanme-

Junkmanme, The frame is very thick and very hard to drill thru aluminum! Yeah...almost seemed like we needed a mortgage loan! I tried to think and plan ahead and so far most of it is panning out. After chatting with Orchiddude and getting price proposals for hydronic heating systems, I decided to go with the ventfree, blueflame heaters. I have one now and will get a second one this weekend and install. I've been keeping a window cracked for fresh air. I don't like that aspect of using these. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a tight greenhouse against the cold only to have to crack a window for the heater! I must have NOT had it cracked enough last night because this morning the flames were more yellow than blue. This is telling me that there is a lack of air in the structure. Not good.

WOW what a great greenhouse.

Hi, OhioJay -

I have two 20k BTU Southern Burner ventless heaters in my 18 x 11 Florian greenhouse. I am wondering how you are doing with your heater? A Southern Burner requires an intake and an exhaust area in very specific spots to allow the heater to run properly.

I have a friend that is having problems with his pilot light going out on a ventless heater and I'm trying to help him, so I was wondering if you have had problems and what you have done to solve them.

Thank you in advance,
Denise

Let me do an air study like I did about 8 years ago and I think we will see that its not your O2 that is the problem. I will get back with you on this. K

Rob

Kittyl,
The difference between twin wall and single wall corregated polycarbonate is about 40% in heating efficiency.

I got my study done...you can see it over in the other Heater thread that stressbaby put up. I think you will find it really interesting.

Hi Denise, I'm still working on the problem. I know what the problem is...not enough combustible air. Check out the "heater" posts that are going on. Obviously your friend's greenhouse is pretty tight not allowing enough of an exchange for combustible air. They will need to either crack some windows, or provide some other means of exhanging air...thru a couple of vents. Good luck.