Mespe's Solar heated water AP Greenhouse Build

[mespe]

Quick post before I do some work, work,,, Bought a temp/humidity sensor Temp got up to 80 degrees F and with an RH of 66%.

Opened the door to get rid of some of that humidity,,, all the rain before I covered it is now condensing on the inner plastic.

Not sure if my fan moves enough air, so I picked up another fan, here's the original,,,



And here's a pic of the back. I dug along the North wall, tucked the plastic in and around to the inside of the GH. What I should have done was kept the plastic even and put both layers on the outside, but, was fighting time, and weather conditions, and wasn't sure it was long enough, and hadn't thought of it,,,

[mespe]

You've got some time before the lake effect snows begin. Will it hold the weight and stresses of that?

Yep, got the wood, plan on using corner brackets to secure a 2x4 pependicular to the center beam, to support the 4 inside PVC hoops. The outer ones are secured to the wood frame with expanding foam.

I'm toying with the idea of using some 1 inch metal tubing that I have laying around this "hoarders" tool shed number 2, instead of 2x4's.

[mespe]

Good news and bad news,,,

First the good, which is also the bad,,,

The solar water heater was able to heat the water in the FT 2.5 degrees F per hour of full sunlight.

Ambient was in the 50's starting temp inside the GH was in the 70's (When I turned on the pump)
10:35 pump on, water temp 54
1:12 pump off water temp 61

7 degrees in 2.5 hours, won't that make for spiteful fish, being subject to that kind of water temp change. Then triple that for 7.5 hours of sunlight, or 21 degree (or so change in water temp)

Ideally I was hoping to keep the water around 70 - 80

But A, numero Uno requirement is to keep the GH temp in the 40's at night, and with the possibility of sub zero temps, I might need to heat the FT up to 90 or so degrees if I can, else backup heater.

I dunno, need more testing and need to complete putting up plastic on the inside.

I also think I might move the batteries outside and make a little box for them, maybe a dog house,, yeah that would be cool.

Didn't take any pics today, nothing new , other than I finally cut the grass yeasterday and started the compost pile inside.

[mespe]

Latest GH pics




Transplanted a tomato today,,, Only one that has survived,,,



Need to stake it up

[dead_sled]

It may be better to heat the soil around the FT. This should allow the temperature to change a bit more gradually.

[mespe]

We had a good hard frost here the day before yesterday. Temp in the GH dropped to 33.2 I turned on the pump and pumped 56F water through the panel. Temp rose rather quickly,,, thinking if the water were 80F I shouldn't have any problem keeping the GH warm when it gets cold out.
So, I'm in the process of building a wood fired water heater. Plans are to use an old Propane tank (Sorry Hank) as the boiler, building a brick enclsoure around it, pumping water from the FT through the Water heater.

[mespe]

It may be better to heat the soil around the FT. This should allow the temperature to change a bit more gradually.

AS it turns out, I am adding a rocket stoev mass heater. Most of the mass will be around the fishtank. With a wood burnign heater inside, I don't need to get the water temp up really high for extended cold periods. (Don't think it would get hot enough anyway, and I'm not risking losing my grapefruit tree.

Here's the guts of the thing. Need to fill inbetween the two tubes with perlite. (oops you can't see the inside tube, but you can see all the cuts at the top fof teh stack that I need to bend over and seal.



And what it'll look like before painting,,,

[mespe]

Finished (sorta) the rocket mass heater.

Here's the inside after adding the peralite.



added a mixture of mortar and clay (both at the bottom and the top)
Bottom just enough so I couldn't see any light, top a bit heavier.



Now to bend the metal tabs back



Put the Tank over it,,,



I filled the tank up to the bottom of the exhaust opening with dirt.
attached the last few pieces of ductwork to the tank,
Put a 5 foot Stack outside 5 feet from the Green house
And light a fire,,,

[mespe]

Now all that's left is to seal up the elbow joints and add cob around the ductwork.

Forcast is in the 20's tonight,,, what timing,,,

Also looks like I don't need to heat the fishtank up to 80 degrees so I can have an aquaponics GH after all,,,

[mespe]

Here's a few more recent pics of the progress



Added some copper tubing around the heater box, and some cob to transfer more heat. The cob started falling off, so I held it in place with an old sheet.



Tomatoe is doing rather poorly, but still alive, then I bumped it, and the nicest branch fell off,,,



Transplanted the lemon into the ground (in the picture) and added some compost on the area over the grapefruit roots.