My cool growing Orchid chamber (with Pics)!

Heliamphora! Nice.

 

Details on the evap cooler, please. Maybe some pics with detail...

That's pretty sweet, Peter. Reminds me of my basement cabinets.

 

Tell ya what, next time you hear somebody say, I love it but I can't maintain temps/humidity, etc...!, send them this link. That advice goes for me too. So many times I've thought, 'man, I want to try that but I can't do it in my present situation." well duh, yes I can.

That is so straight forward and basic. I love it. Thank you, Peter.

 

Thanks for the inspiration!

I am running out of room in my space downstairs and really need to get a new area setup.

 

These cabinets make me miss the nice things about indoor growing. That is a nice one you have here.

 

Very ingenious!!!

 

WOW! I just saw this! Amazing, Peter!
Thanks for posting it!

 

pictures of the dumpster please.

 

Peter, you might get more cooling capacity out of your swamp cooler if you put pads in the two remaining sides, too.

 

Can anyone please provide some thoughts on whether tis better to have the fan in the box, pulling air in through the pads and pushing wet air up, as described. Or...have the fan on one of the sides or through the top, pushing air in, with the pad at the side where the tubing would exit. Seems to me that the second way, the fan would be pushing dry air and thus would last longer (big deal, eh? fans are cheap). I get that the way it is designed it duplicates a regular size greenhouse with exhaust fan, but I don't know why that is better.

If I were to make one I would be sorely tempted to put the fan through the top and have wet pads through two or three of the sides, like Ray suggests, maybe using some kind of ghetto-manifold. Then you could have multiple ports pumping in the air. I was thinking soaker hose affixed along the top of the pads somehow, might work. But again, if pulling the air through the pads is better than pushing it through, why? thanks

 

You post an interesting point and one I asked myself about 5 years ago. I believe the common thought on the matter is to pull air through the cool pads across the plants and back to the outside environment. Unfortunately, I have one small problem with that method. In effect, by doing this, you are creating a vacuum inside the greenhouse by the exit fans so that they can pull the outside air in. Now if your greenhouse is completely air tight (which most are not), you can get good cooling and moisture introduced to the greenhouse. The problem arrises when you get a small opening, possibly around the entry door or a crack in the joint caulking. Anything passing by that area is then sucked through the opening and granted full exposure to your plants.

That scenareo generated a different concept for me. Why not pressurize the greenhouse? By placing the fan or fans outside the greenouse infront of the cooling pads, the same cooling effect is achieved but any openings around the door or covering has a steady pressure of air. Unless the hole is really large, the outgiong air pressure discourages even the most determined insect. Of course with the fans out side of the greenhouse you will need to build a covering over the fans to protect them from the rain. This system works and I have a working model of it myself.

About eight years ago, I built my first greenhouse using the standard method of construction. The house measures 28 feet by 12 feet with a slopped roof giving me floor to ceiling measurements of 8 feet on one side of the house and 12 feet on the opposing side. Several years later, I built a second, stand alone greenhouse out in the center of our back yard where it recieved full sun all day long. The size of that greenhouse is 10 feet wide by 12 feet long with a standard gable type roof design giving me 6 feet clearance at the walls with a roof pitch that gave me 9 feet in the center. On each end of the peaked roof I installed a 1 foot square louvered exhaust port. My intention at the time was to install a small exhaust fan on each end of the greenouse to assist in removing the air from the greenhouse. I hooked up on fan by the louvers and tied it to a thrermostat set at 90 degrees. For the cooling pads, I cut a hole 24 inches high by eight feet long. Outside the greenhouse, I constructed ductwork that housed a 14 inch high pitched fanblade powered by a 1/8th hp motor. The opening faces the front of the greenhouse and is covered by a protective screen to keep bugs, grass, birds, and puppy dogs from being sucked into the fan.

Without going into even more detail, the results were surprising to me. First of all the main fan created so much pressure, that it forced to louvers at the peak ends of the greenhouse open whenever it came on. I never did mount the second exhaust fan because the one that I did install never comes on but the blade turns by the air exiting the greenhouse from the other fan. This second green house consistantly runs between five and ten degrees cooler than my first greenhouse. It has been in full operation for the last five years and the only problem I have had was the bearing on my main fan gave way (it was an old used motor I had left over from another project). When it did give way, the other fan mounted up at the roof peak did kick in and while it did not completely cool down my greenhouse, it did manage to keep the temps. below 110 degrees when the outside temperature was over one hundred degrees. The reason for the difference was that the sun shining on the greenhouse created higher temps than the outside air. Still, with the four internal circulating fans and the one small exhaust fan, it did mange to save my plants until I could get another fan motor installed.

Now I know all of this explanation was probably more that you really wanted or needed to hear, but I am very pleased with my second greenhouse set up and I wanted a chance to explain its principals of operation.

just tom

PS. I have pictures of both my greenhouses in my profile. Th pictures of the second greenhouse were taken right after completion and I only had a few plants in it then. Now it is crammed full of plants I had to move in that I had growing outside under a shade cloth.