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Greenhouses & Garden Structures

I'm putting a pool on my screened porch & trying to make a greenhouse

7 years ago

So... I have a weird advice request. I'm putting it here because this is sort of a greenhouse (and I may add some plants if this works). I have a 13 by 16 ft screened porch. I'm fantastically lucky that it gets some sun most of the day until late afternoon. It is attached to a brick house and has a concrete floor. I plan to put a small 1500 gallon pool with a pool heater on the porch, but am anxious about heating costs (I'm in the mid Atlantic region so we do get cold spells, most recently down to zero overnight). I plan to put 6ml clear plastic sheeting up, and was considering a double layer of it with about 5 inches of air between the two layers, but not sure if that's really that helpful. I would also consider panels. I basically want it as warm as it will get- if it gets too hot, I have a door and large window I can open to heat the house. What kind of heat gain can I expect with this setup? Will the pool help maintain the heat and modulate the temp? Am I overlooking some big factor? Thanks very much!

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Comments (4)

Kevin Reilly
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
6 mil by itself will do nothing for heat retention during the night, but will warm it up during the day. The double layer of poly will be insulated and retain heat at night. Yes the pool is a giant tub of thermal mass and will absorb heat during the day and slowly radiate back during the night. If you had some coin you could do one of these. They seem really cool but expensive I'm sure:

https://www.libartusa.com/pool-enclosures/
edgewooddirk02 thanked Kevin Reilly
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
7 years ago
The 6 mil IRAC does retain a little more heat than 6 mil clear. But neither is a much better insulator than nothing. I've got two layers of the IR poly inflated and that's still very poor insulation. It probably cuts the heating bill in half compared to one layer of clear. But only delays temperature drop by about one hour at night. As the temperature falls in the evening the inside might be an hour later than outside at say reaching the freezing point. It still requires heat input to maintain anything above outside by morning. This is with a large greenhouse, 32x54x16ft.

I also have a sunroom on the south side of the house. It provides a large amount of heat to the house by day. But at night it's the same as the greenhouse. So I move plants out at 9am and back inside at 5pm.
edgewooddirk02 thanked fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
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edgewooddirk02
Original Author
7 years ago
Thank you! I was debating the second layer of poly and I might just go for it as it's pretty cheap to do.

Those do look cool- I'll put one on my "when I won the lottery" list . But seriously, basking in water in the sun is just the best.

I am also adding custom insulation (I think it's r6.7) and insulated cover, but the pool itself is just the typical heavy Intex kind of liner.
edgewooddirk02
Original Author
7 years ago
Fruitnut, thanks for sharing your experience. That saves me some big thinking about whether to invest in glass panels (no). It sounds like if I want to really keep heat in aside from what the pool takes care of, I would need to actually insulate. I wonder if I could use the sheets of insulation to make walls to put up at night... But let's be honest, I'm highly unlikely to keep up with that well enough to make a difference. I'll just have to see how it works out!

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