Hey Horseshoe, someone, Help

I have question about the little fan that circulates the air between the 2 layers of plastic on the green house. The air it circulates comes from INSIDE the greenhouse. We have it going 24/7.

Now that winter is almost here, will this make moisture between the layers? and maybe mildew?

if you don't want moisture in between, use fresh air from outdoors.

I've noticed moisture in mine whether it is blowing air from the inside or from the outside. What you can do is make an "exhaust vent" at the corner of the greenhouse farthest from the blower. This "vent" is normally kept closed so the plastic is inflated (of course). From time to time though you can open the vent to allow the air space to "air out", so to speak. The vent should be built so that you can open it one-quarter open, half open, or fully open. If you open it up one-quarter it will allow stale air out but yet will not allow the bubble to fully deflate.

The vent can be made with anything you have laying around ranging from a piece of plywood attached to the g-house frame with a hole in it (door knob size hole) and hook another piece of wood bigger than the hole that pivots open and shut as much or little as you need it to.

My blower fan is located in a dry area of the g-house, down near the floor, where I keep supplies and uses inside air. I'm glad, too! One winter when ice was forming on the plastic I was about to deflate it thinking the inside heat would warm up the outer layer of plastic. However, what I found out when I inserted a probe thermometer in-between the layers was that the air temp in the layers was in the 50's (outside temp was 30º). Apparently my blower fan was blowing the inside warmer air and already helping to reduce ice buildup. If it had been blowing in cold 30º air from outside I would've really had a mess on my hands.

Well, I copied and put your answers on an e-mail and sent it upstairs to DH. Yes, I do send him e-mails. He goes to bed early,and I will forget to tell him tomorrow. LOL. Thank you so much.

Sounds like good advice from 'Shoe, Edna. I'd go with inside air, esp. where you are.

Besides, you are gona have my 3 pitiful brugs in there overwinter, so I have an interest!

This message was edited Oct 5, 2004 6:57 PM

I took a pic today of a vent I put on our brooder box (for chickens). It's the same concept that I was talking about above.

Here is the vent closed....(very simple concept, eh?)

And fully opened...

I'd suggest a bigger hole for your g-house than this one...

errrr depends what you are growing.
When I lived on the New Jersey New York border we used outside air in one greenhouse. The orchids couldn't handle the constant dripping when inside air was used.

and the plastics froze solid for most of the nights without any real problems... matter of fact it was a type of insulation, and we burned alot less propane with a lil snow.

How true, Drew! That snow on top sure helps hold in the heat, up to a certain point. It was the ice that got my goat though...too heavy and freaked me out too much. Yuck!

As for dripping, I have "dripless" plastic and it really works great. No condensation whatsoever with it. I've noticed lots of condensation only with single layer plastic, can't get away from the drips when using it.

Aren't you glad you are now further south. I think you picked the best place in the world for greenhousing. I'm jealous!

well, i'm not in willacoochee georgia for the intellectual stimulation :-)

I actually like the condensation in my fern houses... even better is with the 'k-50 Infared plastic, the condensation goes airborne and becomes fog.

ohh, on another note regarding condensation (thats what we were talking about wasn't it?) proper air movement cannot be overlooked.
HAF fans are effective, but I personally prefer the fan/punched plastic ducting better.

dp

Yep...I have a roll of that punched tube stuff...it sure helps knocks down on disease also.

One of these days I'm gonna wander thru your orchid (w/ your permission)! We'll see!

Thanks for the info!