Green House window

Help...I have the small HFGH. I would like to but an automatic window opener. I would like to open the window at or above 100 degrees. I want to keep the heat in side the green house. Has anyone tried the HF window openers?
Mickey

I haven't but I doubt you can keep the inside temp at 100 with an auto opener. I think they open at 60.. not that they keep it 60 inside..

I'm not sure what an "HF" window opener is, but I can tell you about the solar powered vent openers. They use something they call a "wax motor" that expands when it gets warm and that's hooked up to a lever arm that opens your vent. It's simple, but effective. My biggest problem with it is the adjustment. They don't have much. If you'd like the greenhouse to get warmer (like I wanted to), you screwed the wax motor away from the mechanism. This made the door start opening at a higher temperature, but then the door wouldn't open as far. This meant that you didn't really have good cooling because it could never open the door very far.

In another thread called something like "modifying solar vent openers" I talked about re-drilling holes in the unit to make it open at a higher temperature, but also be able to open widely just like if you had it set to a lower temperature. Just today I did the modifications that I think should make it work, so tomorrow will be the test. My ideal situation is for the opener to start opening at around 85 and be fully open somewhere around 95, possibly near 100. Your task seems even more difficult than mine. I remember reading a warning that these are not meant to operate over 110 degrees. Stock vent openers started opening the vents around 60 unless you adjusted them all the way out like I did. Then they start opening near 70. My problem was that my heater was set to 70 and it was located near the ground. Here's the bad scenario: In the late fall when the sun was still strong enough to really heat up the greenhouse, but the air was very cold (under 25 or so), the floor of the greenhouse would be about 60 and the ceiling would be around 70. The 60 near the floor made my heater run, but the 70 near the ceiling made my vents start opening. Heater running while the doors open? Was I raised in a barn or something? That's the saying we use around here, but I'm sure other areas say something different.

I'll follow up my original post with results and pictures if I get it to work. Check there later.

Stosh

I'm looking for fanlight window hardward. Fanlights are the windows you see in old buildings above individual room doors. They were either controlled by a metal rod that slid up and down the door facing, by a detached pole with a hook on the end of it used to lift the window into place or by a detached crank handle on a pole that somehow screwed the window into place. I'm about to install ventilation windows that will be hung 16 feet above my greenhouse floor. I will use haevy, recycled, double-pane windows and I don't want to spend a lot of money on automatic openers.

Some times you have to look outside the box..Take the hot air from up high and vent it out using a pipe and fan. Look for a 8 to 10" pipe. Vent it outside at ground level,even below grade. I run mine below ground level in GH for heat at night..What I call ground heat source. I use a 120 v thermostat. While I'm at it, where can I get outlets with built in thermostat for when the temp drops down around 40' they turn on then go off when temp goes up. Something that can be plugged in where ever you have a outlet or drop cord.

Interesting idea.

J_
Here are a couple links to start.
http://www.window-openers.com/traditional_screwjack_window_winders.html
http://www.allaboutdoors.com/index.php?cPath=143_151

goshute,
This may be what you are looking for.
http://www.lmimg.com/Thermostatically_controlled_outlets.asp

David

I believe that Bayliss makes an automatic vent opener that's specific for Orchids that is made to open at a higher temperature than the standard ones, but I'm not sure if that would be enough warmer for your needs.