Getting humidity and airflow for indoor greenhouse

[Mercurianmad]

Hi everyone. Husband wants to build me an indoor greenhouse on the southeast wall of our kitchen so I can raise the humidity for my orchids.

Has anyone done this? How do I control airflow and humidity inside the greenhouse, inside my house?

Here is the spot in the picture below. The entire space of the picture will be the greenhouse. I figure having it indoors will enable me to keep growing conditions stable and protect them from our super cold, snowy winters they’d fight in an outdoor greenhouse. It will be a nice glass or plastic box, wood frame. Shooting for a RH of 70 inside the box.

[DirtyCoconuts]

i assume the piano will be outside of the greenhouse?

the simple answer to your question is with a fan and vents.

it is a more complicated answer about which fan and how to set it up.

since it is indoors and you have electricity there i would simply make it so there are two vents in the greenhouse that can be opened or closed, one into the house and one into the window which can still be opened.

then the fan can be used to create a positive or negative environment depending on the time of year and the effect you are going for

[Mercurianmad]

Oh yes piano will not be in the greenhouse lol. Are these vents opened manually? Electronically? I’m not very skilled when it comes to building things but my husband is. If there is somewhere I could go for reference to show him how these things look or operate?

[ghuylar]

Since you have access to indoor electricity, you can get a small humidifier to place inside the greenhouse. That with a venting system should be able to control your humidity/air flow. There are also rechargeable humidifiers in case an outlet is too far away. Check out the options on Amazon!

[Mercurianmad]

Do you guys recommend plastic, soft plastic, hard plastic, or glass? I figure I can just use the regular light from those windows

---------- Post added at 03:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

And I’ve seen greenhouses online that have ceiling vents. Should I use these of some type of electric vent?

[Mercurianmad]

My husband says I was not clear enough. This is what I mean by “ceiling vent”

[Mercurianmad]

Also, can I just use a plastic greenhouse or should I get a sturdier glass one?

[turbosloth10]

If you look at my post history, you can see the indoor greenhouse I just set up recently. However, it is kind of ugly and I wouldn't want it in any room in my house, I put it in my unfinished basement which is perfect for me. I would also be worried about humidity and spilled water damaging the house and/or floor.

If you don't have too many plants, something like this might be a good choice, with a drip tray on each shelf (or just one on the bottom). Then you could take advantage of the natural sunlight from those windows, and add some extra lights if needed. You wouldn't need much more than a mini desk fan or a couple computer fans, and may not even need a humidifier if you can mist once or twice a day. Just something to think about, as a very cheap and not permanent option.

-Bill

[Mercurianmad]

Here’s the greenhouse my husbands thinking of getting, 9x4. We’ll have to either have a floor built to protect our hardwood floors or improvise a floor to handle the humidity. Per the comments, I’m thinking of having an automatic exhaust fan installed in the open window and a roof vent in the house for ventilation.

I’ll get an office fan for airflow, or should I get an oscillating fan?

There is the option of adding an automatic misting system, but maybe just the humidity trays or a humidifier would be sufficient for such a small space?

Thoughts?

Thank you for your help!

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[Mercurianmad]

Also, I’m guessing I should put some type of shade cloth or something on it to diffuse the light from the windows? How do you guys diffuse the light going into your greenhouses for the orchids?