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  1. #1
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    Nov 2013
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    Understanding Climate Thresholds and Requirements

    Hi all. Glad to have found the forum. This is my first post.

    First a bit about my intended setup: We have a family of four adults,

    I'm very excited to start doing aquaponics. I live in the upstate of South Carolina, USA. Frost depth here is 1". Most winter nights are no lower than the high 30s but we do get some dips into the 20s. My questions are regarding climate and how to deal with the high temps of the summer, and the low temps of the winter, and what the shelter might look like that handles this.

    I'm assuming that you do in fact need to operate all year round, as the tilapia fish needs 13 months to get to table weight. Correct me if I'm wrong, and you can in fact successfully run the system for just 3 seasons a year.

    Considerations I've observed for dealing with each problem separately (I've not seen a solution that solves both problems at once).

    Cold:
    3 insulated walls with 1 full glass wall (for solar heat gain, and light for plants).
    Some have the south (sunny side, I'm in the northern hemisphere) slope of the roof glassed
    Water barrels painted black in the back of the structure for thermal mass, plus the water of the aquaponics systems, all to help keep temperature inside the greenhouse stable when the sun isn't shining.
    Electric/Propane heat. (How/where to put this so it doesn't hurt the plants with direct hot air etc.

    Hot:
    Thermostatically controlled louvered vents and fans for air cycling with outside air.
    "Swamp" cooler
    Shade cloth (is that put on the inside or out?)

    It seems like a greenhouse/shelter built to address the cold weather concerns would be very hot in the summer, requiring lots of fans etc. to lower the temperature.

    Perhaps I'm being a bit of a Chicken Little here.

    Love to get your thoughts, experiences, pictures, sketches, anything.

  2. #2
    Members dead_sled's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Nebraska
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    Re: Understanding Climate Thresholds and Requirements

    Some of my inlaws are commercial growers in zone 4-5 (Nebraska). They grow from Jan to late Oct. During the cold months they use a large wood framed greenhouse because it is heated by a combination of a wood boiler that feeds the "in floor heat" and propane forced air heat. This greenhouse uses a two layer inflated poly cover and a soil floor. Fans and vents are used to cool it off in the summer. Some of the hoop houses have removeable sides to help control the heat in the summer. Depending on the crop inside the hoop houses, a shade cloth may be installed on the top of the greenhouse.

    You may consider using the soil around and beneath your greenhouse as a heatsink.
    Less irritating avatar since 02/27/14.

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