Shade cloth and Roof Vents
cercis47
2 months ago
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Shade Cloth - Density & Other Questions
Comments (21)You can continue to put your dark colored shade cloth on the inside and I will continue to suspend a white one over my GH and we can both be happy. Do you always put words in other people's mouths? I never said such a thing, and I don't see anyone else saying the same thing? You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. I prefer: You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think. My point was simply that at least here, aluminet is about ten times more expensive than shadecloth, and there has been no compelling evidence that it is better. (no, neither SHOUTING nor 'I've always done it that way' are compelling evidence) I ask 'why bother?'. Does aluminet last longer than shade cloth? scratch less? weigh less? Are there any good reasons to use it besides being shiny? I would guess that it is more likely to scratch as aluminium is harder than polycarbonate, whereas shadecloth is made from polyester or PET. (From memory, aluminet does scrunch up well removing the need for a rolling mechanism, but then, even time I've seen it used, it was used on the inside - maybe it degrades faster in UV or something) Clavero: good idea. be persuaded by facts, not by who says what :)...See MoreQuestions about using shade cloth
Comments (37)The ceiling fans in my 12 x 16 X 12 ft. high GH are 52 inch, with 5 blades each, and as already noted, are outdoor models, and I have yet to see aluminum, or vinyl- rust. However, I would also argue that in a smaller, lower height GH, 2 smaller fans would be superior to a single large one, and I'll explain why. It's a bit of a long tale, but bear with me, because what I learned came from actual experience. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention but in our case, it was more like desperation. Our house is a fairly typical early 1950's ranch, with a shallow hip roof and 8 ft. ceilings. (It's only real attribute is the fact that we burnt the mortgage 25 years ago.) It also has a combination forced air heating & AC system, with baseboard vents, which is about as inneficient a means to cool a structure as you can get, and until we replaced the old H/AC with a high effeciency system 2 years ago, cooling this place in our often blistering summers was often a decision between keeping cool, or gassing up the tractors. The first ceiling fan was a small $19.99 cheapie installed over the stairwell to the basement, intended to pull some of the air in that lovely sink of cool- up. It helped enough to encourage us to install a fan in our bedroom, which is long and narrow, with no cross ventillation, as the windows are all on the one exterior wall. However, because of the length of the room, we ended up installing 2 of them, both 52", and due to the ceiling height, mounted close to the ceiling, which reduces their effectiveness. Our bed is directly under one of them, and the first time we ran them in winter with the blades set to blow down, the breeze was just too much, so we reversed just that one, and to our delight, discovered total air circulation. The fans move the air continually, end to end, floor to ceiling and other than for cleaning, have not been turned off since. Once the porch ceiling fan had convinced me that I wanted one in my GH, the experience in our bedroom and pure logic dictated that the same would apply in my GH; so 2 fans there also. All it took to prove it, was a handfull of down. The fans are currently set to pull up, to draw air up and out of the roof vents. This winter, they will be set to run each in a different direction, to the same affect as in the bedroom. In a closed space, multiple speed ceiling fans will move air gently, or with force, depending on the set speed, and that's another feature missing in HAF's. I do not believe that ourdoor air moves in an even, horizontal direction, as our planet really is round, but will leave any further explanations to our resident expert on things scientific- Nathan....See MoreShade cloth for 6x8 HFGH
Comments (3)If you dont want to cut the shade cloth around the roof vents, then you have to install it with enough slack to allow the vents to fully open, as kudzu9 stated. It could be a problem in windy areas though, as the shade cloth would be flapping mad with all that slack. Another option would be to cut a square around the vents so that the shade cloth is snug fit on the roof, but does not restrict the vents in any way. And with the small squares that were cut out, place them over the vents and attach with either heavy duty glue or wires. The drawback there is that when the sun is at certain angles, the interior of the GH might be getting direct sun through the small gap that is unshaded. As for shade cloth material, I just use the ordinary 50% shade fabric sold at most home and garden stores. The GH manufacturers also sell their own brand of shade cloth that is cut to fit the specific size of your GH. But I have not bothered with those....See MoreAluminet shade cloth screen panels for HFGH
Comments (19)Update on January 1 (Happy New Year folks!) in response to a question by Baileybear in another thread... I wanted to add a photo of how we added a drape of Aluminet shade cloth to the interior roof. I think the Aluminet is probably more effective on the outside of the greenhouse, but I knew the wind would be a constant battle here, so we're trying it inside first. First we attached a 10' steel tube to the inside of the roof peak. (We had a piece of stainless tubing sitting around, but EMT would work fine.) My husband formed three hook shapes by doubling a length of plumbers strap (that flat metal strapping with holes) and bending it into a hook shape. Then he removed the nut from one of the bolts at the peak, slipped the hook in place, and replaced the nut. You can see the hook in the center of this photo, holding the bare rod. I laid the Aluminet cloth out flat in the yard, then folded it in half, and slid the rod into the fold. I secured the Aluminet to the central rod with wire twisty ties about every foot. (Classy, huh.) Then we carried the whole thing into the GH and hung it on the three roof hooks. (You have to make little holes in the Aluminet to poke the hooks through.) After securing the sides, it looks like this: On each side, we wrapped the Aluminet around another 10' piece of EMT tubing. If I decide to keep this set up, I'll put a hem in the shadecloth to slip the tubes in. Since this was a "temporary" experiment, we just rolled the edge of the Aluminet around the rod until it was taut, and secured it with more twisty ties and baling wire. The rod was then anchored to the top of the greenhouse wall with baling wire, looped around the bolts on our three central EMT ceiling braces, because they were handy. (The EMT ceiling braces are the three horizontals you see in the lower part of the above photo.) I just cut a small slit in the Aluminet so I could stick my hand through to operate the roof vents. The Aluminet does not unravel when you do this (it's cool stuff.) So far I like it. If I want less shade, I can unfasten the rod on the south side and slide it all the way across the greenhouse to the north side, riding along the tops of our three central EMT braces. That way the south side of the roof is fully exposed to sun, and the north side of the roof has two thicknesses of shadecloth in place. Although, I haven't done it very often...I'm learning that sunny days even in December can heat up the GH so fast that I just leave the roof shadecloth in place...but that may be a quirk of our desert climate, and I'm still experimenting. One more update...because of the cold nights, I have all of my poly panels back in place on the south side. But, I figured out I can put the screens back in place OVER the poly panels by holding them in with clips installed backwards. Looks silly, but it provides just enough snugness to keep my screens in place. I've also made a triangular piece of Aluminet to go over the inside west gable, over my doors. I just cut it to size, hemmed it by hand, and it's attached with velcro to the aluminum frame. Our west sun is brutal even in late afternoon, especially in summer. I can take a photo if it would help anyone. If any of this is unclear, let me know. That's where I am so far in my learning curve! Sheri...See Morecercis47
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