How I spent my summer....

[TFOGGER]

Greenhouse for the wife. The objectives: Enclose the canopy over the hot tub to make it more usable, and incorporate the footprint of the old greenhouse to better use the waste heat from the hot tub to help heat the greenhouse. Add height to the greenhouse to accommodate the taller plants so they don't have to come inside for the winter. Automate as much as possible the heating and ventilation systems to reduce the daily upkeep. Build for better insulation to reduce heating costs.

Construction: 16 gauge 1 inch square steel tubing, mig welded, with the sections bolted together. Skinned with 8mm twin walled polycarbonate. The roof of the greenhouse section is triple walled.




The black cylinders are wax powered automatic openers for the vent windows.



The greenhouse portion is 6 feet tall on the short wall, about 8 ft 3 at the peak.







The barrels are filled with water to provide thermal mass to moderate temperatures and take advantage of solar heat during the day in the winter to help heat the thing overnight.

[wctriumph]

Nice, good job. Year round veggies?

[Great-Kazoo]

How much did you exceed or meet your original budget by? Also links on the openers, TIA.

[Fentonite]

Nice

[TFOGGER]

Nice, good job. Year round veggies?

Yup. Nothing like FRESH RIPE tomatoes in January to keep me from going all Jack Nicholson...

How much did you exceed or meet your original budget by? Also links on the openers, TIA.

The original quote from the green house guy that was at the home show last fall was $21.5K, so that was not an option. I budgeted $4500 for materials, plus my labor. Total, I spent just short of $5300, including a used MIG machine and a miter saw to cut the metal.

Openers came from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o02_s00

There are heavier duty units available, but space was the prime consideration, and these are more than adequate for the weight of the windows. The construction is pretty strong, but relatively light weight(windows are about 7 lbs each).

[Gman]

Nice grow operation you have there.

I've never seen those vent openers before, so I Googled them. Really clever idea. I had a dishwasher that had a wax actuator for the detergent dispenser lid and this is taking the idea to another level.

[Ah Pook]

Nice grow op.

[TheGrey]

I am mightily impressed! What do you think the average temperature over the winter months will be?

[vossman]

Thats badass. Very cool TFOGGER

[TFOGGER]

I am mightily impressed! What do you think the average temperature over the winter months will be?

With heaters. the temp should never go below 50 degrees, as the tropical plants don't like it. The goal was to reduce the heating costs compared to the old stand alone greenhouse through better insulation and recovering some of the waste heat from the hot tub. We should also see some savings from the ht tub not being outside, so it's a win-win. Besides, now we won't have snow blowing down on us while we're in the hot tub!