Greenhouses

[adams77]

I decided to ditch the idea of converting the shell of a carport into a garage and instead I am looking in to making this structure into a greenhouse..........

I have my playhouse, the wife wants hers...

Here are some pics of the structure.

Any helpful hints?

I will be using the clear plastic (See thru tin roof) material for the roof and some of the sides. Likely to use crushed gravel for the floor as well.

 

[Franz©]

First thing is whjat do you plan on growing in there? That pretty much dictates how hot you want it to get and stay.

What is the orientation of the building relitive to the compass?
How is your supply of free water?

The white fiberglass panels might be fine for walls, but in Georgia you will probably want green to somewhat minimize your solar gain, unless you are also planning to use it for a steam room.

You will also want a way to retain free solar heat gained during the day so you can use it to keep the house warm at night with minimal cost. Any coal yards in your area?

What's your construction timeframe? You can learn a lot if you have time to play, and save yourself a lot of money.

 

[Freejack]

A common technique used in commercial greenhouses in dual layerss of ploy, inflated with air. It allows the plastic to last a lot longer, since the layer that is exposed to the elements isn't also against the structure. More importantly it gives you some additional insulation value by providing some dead airspace between the layers. Most of the time this is employed on quanset style buildings, but it wouldn't be too hard to adapt. The only downside is that you have a fan the must run 24 hrs a day, but it doesn't take a very big blower at all, think something the size of a draft inducer on a furnace.

Jake