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All year greenhouse V2.0
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After the V1.0 disaster here we go again..
I was given a polytunnel a couple of years ago, brand new unused. I'm going to try with this for now however a local glazing company have just offered me some windows that were left over from some previous jobs so in the not too distant future I'll do a serious upgrade to a fixed structure that will hopefully not be prone to wind damage. Anyway, for now it's the poly tunnel plus some extra ropes and concrete blocks to hopefully hold it down. The controller stuff.. Since the last greenhouse controller I made a radical shift away from PIC processors to Arduino and then ESP8266 which has built in WiFi. So a completely re-designed and re-written controller was in order. I've used a couple of environmental sensors for light monitoring and temperature/humidity (and for interest atmospheric pressure) with everything now displayed on a web browser in my office. From here I can monitor and control the heating and lighting. Later I'll add watering and temperature control but not until the fixed structure is built. The poly tunnel. The green covering is to both add extra strength and for shading. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1580799663 The plant stands are simply concrete blocks and old pallets. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1580799663 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1580799663 The environment sensors. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1580799663 The main status display https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1580799663 |
Very impressive as usual Actuario! The wifi stuff is so cool. I haven't gotten into any of that yet myself.
What are you all growing in the greenhouse? |
I love the Wi-Fi controls and the monitoring app.
Your Lettuce is looks good. |
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In the greenhouse at the moment I have sweet peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, runner beans, chilli peppers, rhubarb, onions and cucumbers. I'm hoping to grow lettuce all year and time will tell what else. At the back on the left you can see the grow lights I'm using. |
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Here is a screenshot of the performance during 24 hours, it lets me monitor both the solar batteries and temperature variations in the greenhouse.
It's amazing that in February, typically the coldest month of the year here, the temperature is getting up to 34C. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1580968612 |
Here's an update on the greenhouse and future plans..
So far no very strong winds so the poly tunnel is still standing although it is starting to deteriorate. Everything inside is growing like crazy, we have runner beans climbing string guides, loads of tomato plants, lettuce, rhubarb, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins all coming along nicely and it's only the end of February. Anyway, at some moment we will get strong winds - that's guaranteed so phase 2 is in progress. I've just spent the last 2 days with my builders hat on building the main back wall. Today I'll start the front wall. The orientation is pretty close on south facing so my plan is to have a glass (or equivalent) roof, glass sliding door and 3 big glass windows in the south facing wall. The north wall won't have any windows and will provide shade behind it for the rhubarb. Fortunately a double glazing company that I work with have just moved workshops and have loads of doors/windows left over from various jobs that I can get extremely cheaply. I've chosen sliding windows for all of them so I can hopefully automate opening/closing for ventilation. The plans for heating/cooling I have at the moment are:
I'll update as things progress. Acuario |
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Here is a photo of the plants on 29th February in the existing polytunnel
https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1583040156 ..and the new greenhouse taking shape.. East facing wall and entrance door https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1583040186 North wall https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1583040186 South facing https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1583040186 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1583040186 |
If you end up using some glass panels in the future, make sure they are tempered for safety.
Also consider glazing angle for winter time sun angle. Glass can reflect allot at certain angles unlike plastic that doesn't care. |
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Here is the (almost) finished greenhouse.
I still need to add some of the automation but it is now operational. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1583987058 The roof is 10mm polycarbonate panel. The picture shows the blinds down, the two windows have double glazed glass panels behind. The orange colored panel is temporary while I wait for the glass to arrive. |
Looking really great!!
My green thumb is not so good, but I applaud your efforts. Bravo! |
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As we are on lockdown by the government for the Coronavirus I'm taking advantage to work on the greenhouse.
Here is the ventilation fan (ex evaporator fan from a mini-split) installed and with the external louvered flap grill. Tomorrow I hope to get it properly wired up :) I'm going to try one for now but I have another one should it be necessary. I'm going to add the light sensor and a second temperature sensor just below the fan (connected via the junction box) then use that temperature to decide when to start the fan. The other temperature sensor is much lower. I'm waiting on delivery of the misting sprayers so I can automate the watering. Also waiting for the glass for the windows then I can decide how to connect up the linear motors for opening/closing. In the picture you can see some of the plants, in the background runner beans, tomatoes and squash, cucumbers and on the right foreground rhubarb. All grown from seed. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1584208970 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1584208970 |
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Here are a few photos of the plants that are growing on 23rd March. The runner beans are just starting to flower and everything else is growing like crazy. I've started planting some out in the garden as the temperature over night is slowly creeping up.
I'm just finishing the programming and testing of the solar heating and have most of it installed. The fan cooling system is also ready to install, I'll probably fit that today. Another view of the greenhouse from the south https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1585027139 The plants https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1585027139 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1585027139 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1585027139 |
Plants look great.
We picked some strawberries and tomatoes today. |
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I've finally finished (well, probably as finished as any homebrew project ever gets save the inevitable modifications!) the heating system for the greenhouse.
Typically January/February are the coldest months in the area of Spain where I live but typically this year - not. It's currently 22C and sunny outside and overnight it didn't drop below 16C. But at least now I'm prepared! I've attached photos of everything and a schematic that shows how it all fits together - the only thing missing is the heatpump which is connected into the tank T1 (yes, it is installed and working). The design for the heat exchanger coil is here. The heatpump controller is one of my IOT controllers. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1612278111 Originally I planned to make my solar hot water panel using 2 steel panel radiators but then an offer I couldn't miss appeared - brand new unused solar hot water panels for 50 euros! Only I had to collect them and buy 10 on a pallet - but it was an offer too good to pass up. I've used 1 on the greenhouse, I'm going to add 4 or maybe 5 to the house heating and the rest.. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1612278111 Anyway, as well as the water panel I also bought 2 x 410W solar panels and a cheap 3Kw hybrid inverter. As I just swapped out my gel batteries for LiPo4 I moved the old batteries into the garden shed to run the greenhouse. The system is a drain back system that uses a 3-way valve to change over from feeding water to the solar panel (when it's hot) or the greenhouse (when it's cold). As a backup there is a heatpump to provide heating (maybe I'll try cooling in the summer!) Heat storage is 2 x 100 liter (ex) water heaters and the drainback reservoir is provided by an (ex) 50 liter water heater (which happened to be a top feed so fixed upside down with the element removed is just perfect. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1612278111 One problem I discovered is that I seemed to be sucking air from the solar panel so I had to add an air purge system in the return pipe (you can see it on the right of the photo). In the actual greenhouse there is underfloor heating plus a fan-coil made from an old internal split unit with pretty much everything stripped out, I knew this would come in useful one day - see here how I made it https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1612278111 The control of everything is done using an esp8266 and various I/O modules (for light/humidity/temperature). The controller handles the solar heating/greenhouse heating, the greenhouse cooling fan, the grow-lights and (soon) will also handle the watering. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1612278111 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1612278111 |
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