Small greenhouse on the terrace

[spetrizio]

Hi,
after many yers of dreaming that one day I will have my own greenhouse, and after a half an year of building, connecting and tuning equipment, today GH is officially up and running.
This forum helped me a lot with very usefull information and ideas. Thanks to all of you.

GH is on the terrace in front of my living room. It is quite small 4mx3m. Orientation is south - west with a plenty of sun.

picture from the garden:



look from inside:





Summers in Croatia are very hot 32-35 C (90-95F) sometimes 100F, and GH is in full sun almost all the day, so the biggest issue was cooling and proper ventilation.

equipment:


For cooling and humidity high pressure pump is used (1000 PSI) with 6 fine nozzles. Water is RO. Pump is connected to humidistat and timer. I am running it only during the day.

fine mist:


GH in mist:


Ventilation is done by two exhaust vents placed into 2 tubes with 3 vent holes each. they are placed in oposite corners of the roof. One vent takes fresh air in in the other one out. Max capacity is one air change in the minute. also I have two small circulating vents running all the day.

few more details:

[Bud]

WOW! I love your set - up.....You have it really on a state of the art modern equipments and the whole works....you have happy healthy plants.
Your Vandas are producing large roots....post pictures of your flowers soon!

[jai_star]

your setup is such an inspiration and the results show all the hard work you have put in. I love that picture of the GH in mist it reminds me of the tropics

[stonedragonfarms]

Very nice set-up. It makes me miss my gh.

[Wynn Dee13]

Beautiful! I wish I has one! Nice plants too!

[DavidCampen]

Very nice!

[WhiteRabbit]

Wow! That's wonderful! It looks great!

[JaneEyre]

That is a great greenhouse! At first I didn't even notice it - it complements the house architecture very well. I love that it is on a terrace - very creative use of space. Now I can't complain that my yard is too small for a greenhouse. You did a wonderful job!

[Gonmon]

That looks great! Fits in with the style of the house perfectly. So is the mist and ventilation enough to keep temps down? How much does that cool the green house?

[spetrizio]

today is one of the hottest days this year. outside temperature is 37.5C (99F). inside maximum temperature is between 30.5 and 32C (86.5-90F). humid is between 72-80%. exhaust vents are running on 1 air change in 3 minutes.

I am planning some improvments.
1. my humidistat is not very sensitive. if humid is set on 77%, result is that switch off is on 82 and switch on is on 72%. +/-5% makes 10% difference every few minutes so temperature also varies. I would like to find one with +/-2%.

2. currently I am running exhaust fans on constant speed. I have ordered thermostat with variable speed control.

also I am planning to add one more circulating fan.

with those changes I think it will be possible to keep humid during the period of max outside temperatures on 82% +/-2%., and keep max inside temp below 30C(86F).