In case you missed it, here’s the last greenhouse photo I shared.
We finally assembled all the pieces needed to hook it up to solar, and now have functional ventilation in the greenhouse.
It’s powered by a
12-volt 100-watt solar panel on the roof above the greenhouse. No battery, so it runs when there’s sun and doesn’t when there isn’t. Fan speed is regulated by the amount of sun hitting the panel. This is okay, because I need ventilation when the sun is bright and heating up the greenhouse more than I want! This is ultimately
why my hoophouse failed for winter growing. It’s not uncommon to get 60°F (16°C) days or warmer during winter here, which meant the hoophouse got too hot for cool weather plants. I had no means of ventilation other than opening the end flaps. This wan’t effective, and everything bolted! I’m hoping the vent fan will help with that.
If it’s cold out and we don’t want to lose warmth, there’s a switch to turn it off.
 |
The solar panel is wired to the switch,
and the switch is wired to the fan. |
The fan will be on during warm winter days and probably run all summer. Not because I plan on using the greenhouse for plants then, but to help vent hot air stacked up right next to the house and warming up my studio/sewing room!
The jalousie window on the backside of the greenhouse provides cooler outside air for the draft.
There’s more shade and hence cooler air on this side of the greenhouse, so it makes sense to draw from this side and vent out on the hotter sunny side.
The big question was, will it work?!? The next day we had a chance to test it out. After lunch, the outside thermometer read 52°F (11°C). The greenhouse thermometer read 80°F (27°C). I turned on the fan and opened the jalousie window. Two hours later the outside temp was up to 55°F (13°C), but the greenhouse temp had dropped to 75°F (24°C). That’s promising! The following day was another warm one in the greenhouse. When the temp got up to 80°F (27°C), I turned on the fan but left the door open instead of the window, to experiment. Two hours later it was down to 70°F (21°C). My conclusion is that the 80-watt fan has a good air draw.
Of our overnight lows, the coldest night we’ve had so far was 22°F (-5.5°C). The greenhouse got down to 32°F (0°C), with no frost or freeze damage to the cherry tomato (my only warm weather plant).
Summer cooling may be another story, but that remains to be seen. I’m not planning on growing anything in the greenhouse in summer anyway, but it would be nice to keep it as cool as possible to keep the heat from transferring to the house.
I’m calling this first year our test year. I’ll keep track of temps and we’ll experiment. Our coldest weather is yet to come, but we have a few ideas to try. Hopefully, we’ll learn some things about how to regulate greenhouse temperatures (both cold and hot).
Source:
https://www.5acresandadream.com/2023/12/greenhouse-ventilation.html
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