Well, I finished my cold frame on Saturday. It was about 40 degrees outside. I put it out in my garden. It immediately went up to 80 degrees. I was shocked. Then Sunday I went out to see what it was doing. It was 30 degrees outside and it was 110 degrees in the cold frame. I figured it would heat up pretty well, but I had no idea it would get that hot in 30 degree weather. What is my cheapest option for keeping the cold frame cooler during the day(outside of me going out and opening it every morning of course :))? Would some sort of shade help? Would using window tint on the top piece of plexi help? Or should I go directly to shelling out the $50 for an automatic opener? Is there a cheaper automatic opener option than $50?

Obviously none of the people who have responded have even a remote clue about how to properly size a line. When designing a potable water distribution system you begin by selecting all the end use fixtures to determine what the end use load will be. In the case of the original post they want a shower head, body sprays, a hand shower and possibly a rain shower head. Quote:"How many fixtures will you have on at any one time? Remember that 3/4" pipe has double the capacity of 1/2" pipe." Code requires that we design a potable water system for a worst case scenario. The system must be capable of maintaining the code listed minimum fixture "Dynamic head pressure" even when every fixture in the house is turned on at the same time. The statement that a 3/4" pipe has twice the capacity of a 1/2" pipe is not true. The capacity, or properly the volume of flow is determined by the size of the metering orifice in the end use fixture. It is true that a 3/4" line has double the cross sectional area of a 1/2" line however both will supply the same volume, the difference being that the velocity of flow will be twice as fast in the 1/2" pipe. The problem here is that as the velocity of flow increases the "fiction head pressure loss" increases dramatically. In addition to the loss of pressure due to friction head if the velocity of flow exceeds 8fps we start seeing sever pipe wall erosion, which leads to premature pipe failure. In fact, while acidic water is the leading cause of pin hole failure in copper pipe, excessive velocity in undersized pipe is the second leading cause of pinholes. Preferably we should have the end use fixture data available when designing the system but in situations where that information is not yet available we use the gal/min flow rates that are published in the code. Now getting back to the original question. All the end use fixtures in question are types of shower heads and per code shower heads are restricted to 2.5gpm so let us begin putting it all in perspective. Using the code standard of 2.5gpm we get shower head (2.5gpm), hand shower (2.5gpm) and body sprays (2.5gpm)equals and a hand shower(2.5gpm) for a total load of 10gpm. Consulting the "Type L Copper Friction Loss Table" we find that if we supply this shower with a 1/2" line the velocity of flow would be 13.80ft/sec and the pressure loss would be 67.72psi/100ft of pipe. If we increase the pipe size to 3/4" the velocity of flow is 6.62ft/sec and a pressure loss of 11.17psi/100ft.

I did a grafting seminar today and I asked the same question. He stated that the higher up the stock you graft, the more dwarfing effect it has. So I guess it depends on what you are looking for. Anyone else experience this?

We walked down to the roadway after dinner last night to see what damage we had. Driveway is still intact but most of the gravel has been washed out on to the grass area and ditch. We have an area in the driveway which needs to be refilled as the rush of water created a crevice. Lots of grass and debris from when they just mowed our roadway ditches is now piled up on the field and grass area where our electrical meter box is. I am thankful we are far enough back from the roadway and up a slight incline to not have it affect our home and the gardens. In 20 years that we have lived here, this has never happened. Plenty of storms like this but not with this kind of result. And yes, the plants love it.