Finally got the GH up and going - need advice for setup

I've always wanted a gh for a variety of reasons including growing tropicals and starting seeds and cuttings. Finally have this used Jacobs GH measuring 16x8 up and going. I have water and power running to it and there are three roof vents. I really think that I need a forced ventalation system and my watering system needs to be tweeked. Right now I just have a timer hooked up to a RainDrip system with misters suspended above the bench. I think that the droplets are too small for regular watering - is that possible?

I've been thinking that I probably need something like the 12" or 16" ventalation system from Charlies GH with the fan and vents. Also probably need a humidity sensing device for the misters and use a seperate watering time with bigger droplets for day to day watering or maybe just go to hand watering?

Here are some pictures - I hope it is ok to imbed them into the post list this. I have a 300 gal pond sunk into the ground underneath the gh for my tropical water lilies and to grow water lettuce for the koi.

Another pic

Interior

More interior - wish there was a way to just imbed large images in the post:)

Hi, Josh! Cool GH and I love the pond inside! I don't have any answers for you, since I don't even have a GH yet, but someone will come along soon with answers for you.

Not sure what you mean about the photos. They enlarge very well.

Nice job! I would definitely put a exhaust fan and shutters in there with a thermostat. Also, you are right, the misters will not be good for watering-esp as the weather gets hotter. I usually only use misting for when I am starting seeds, and hand water everything else. You don't want foliage to go into nighttime wet, so try to water in the am, and make sure the misters aren't on in the late afternoon.

It would be really cool eventually if I could rig up a tray under bench that routed the runoff water into the pond and then I pumped out of there to water the plants:)

Thanks tigerlily123 for the advice - will definetly get rid of the misters and go over to hand watering or at least bigger droplets. I wish there an inexpensive way to buy the fan and vents but I haven't found one yet and I've been looking for at least a year.

Msrobin - thanks for the kind words:) On the pictures - on other forums I can link in a big picture to the post where people don't have to click to enlarge.

I don't know if you want runoff going into the pond...there'll be excess fertilizer, salts, probably a little dirt mixed in, probably not good for the pond if you're trying to grow plants or keep fish in it.

Josh, great pictures and the GH looks well done. I would definitely not let the runoff water into your pond. The runoff would kill your fish and over time be bad for the pond plants even. What a great place to spend some time. You can try the link below for your fan. I have not ordered from this company but have seen good reports on other posts about this company.

http://www.hydro-gardens.com/coolingventilation.htm#Fans

Hmm - good points about the runoff issues. This is really just a secondary pond - have a main koi pond outside but if I am feeding the fish plants out of this pond I don't want them contaminated. I guess I was thinking that if I were using baked compost for dirt in the greenhouse and no synthetic fertilizers other than the natural fish poop from the pond it might work. Probably would have to screen the runoff though or have a bottom drain with a big filter on the pond.

The gh has a raised floor - about a foot of space underneath the boards. I tried to slant the dirt underneath to allow the runoff to collectinto the drain. Does come in handy for routing electrical and water lines out of the way.

farmergray - That is a great website for the fans and vents - will definetly pick something up there. I guess if my dimensions are roughly 16L X 8W X 8H that means I have a cubic volume of 1024 feet so I should shoot for a fan with at least that high of a CFM rating. Is it better to have a bigger intake vent than the outtake so that more air comes in low as opposed to through the ceiling vents?

Generally, you want two shutters whose combined width equal the width of the fan. So if a fan is 24", then you would use 2 shutters, each 12" wide and place them at the opposite end of the fan, like on either side of the door, up higher than lower. You will also get better "pull" of air moving thru the grhouse if you just shut the ceiling vents. I don't think that just the ceiling vents (no shutters) will pull enough air thru to cool down the grhouse when it gets hot out.

Tigerlily123 - So would I mount the fan high or low on the opposite end? I would probably look to buy the 16" fan from the Hydro-gardens website - it looks to be rated for 1330cfm - little oversized for the greenhouse but that probably isn't a bad thing. I guess I could just use two 10" vents then although seems like it might not be a bad idea to bump those up to 12"? Also - on the intake shutters do they have to be powered? Is it better to have the fan pushing air into the greenhouse or out?

I mount my exhaust fan about 4' off the ground in the center of the back gable (end), on the end opposite the door, and I put the shutters on either side of the door up as high as I can, so you don't have the cold air coming right on the plants. Plus, hot air rises, so thats the air you want moved out. I don't have powered shutters, I don't think you need them. Believe me,. when that fan comes on, it will suck open those shutters open fast, and when the fan shuts off, the shutters drop back down. It is good to keep the shutters oiled so they close all the way. I just spray silicone once a season on the hinges.

I think oversized is better than undersized too.

I've found the roof vents are a nice idea that should work, but don't JoshB. If they are open when the exhaust fan is on, it just pulls cooler air from the roof vents (least resistance) and blows it right out...doesn't do much to cool the entire GH. But the roof vents CAN be usefull in delaying when the fan comes on. On a sunny winter day here in Charleston, the outside air temp is usually in the 40's-50's, GH temp in the high 60's at 9 am. If I leave the roof vents closed, by 10 am the GH temp will be in the high 70's, and climbing fast! The side vents open @ 75 degrees, and the fan kicks in at 80. What I've found is that by opening the roof vents and the back door when I first arrive, the exhaust fan doesn't kick in quite so soon. Maybe delays it 1/2-1 hour. Whoop-de-do! I saved 1.032756 cents in energy costs! But it isn't really the cost that I'm looking at here...it's how quickly the temp change occurs. If I open the roof vents, the temp. change is more gradual (a good thing, I think). But the minute that exhaust fan comes on, I close the roof vents and the back door, and leave them closed for the rest of the day, so I'm getting a "bottoms-up" ventillation, which really does change the air in the GH and keeps it cooler. As you know, (or will shortly) that GH temp can climb 20-30 degrees in an hour!

1330 isn't oversized. If I were choosing a fan, I'd go even a little higher. Exchange of air once a minute gets you to about 8F of outside temp but exchanging air every 30 seconds gets you to within 4F of outside temp. Shutters don't have to be powered, but if they are you can set them to open ahead of your exhaust fan. I agree with Stono, roof vents don't work so well with exhaust fan on, and in fact I have started keeping my roof vents closed during the hottest times of the year.

Don't get rid of the misters, you may want some version of them for cooling.