Solar Greenhouses
Solar Greenhouse Essentials
Breeding and producing plants can be a great hobby and also a way to make a good living. The best way to earn a living is by producing crops with a high value. Apart from producing a good income it is
Solar Greenhouse
a great way of doing your bit for the enviroment. One of the ways you can sustain this income producing hobby is to purchase a solar geenhouse. Carry on reading this article to learn all about solar greenhouses.
What Is a Solar Greenhouse?
The purpose of a greenhouse is to gather solar power from the sun. The thing with solar greenhouses they serve a much more specific purpose. The solar greenhouses are able to do a lot more than just collect the solar energy. They can store heat that can be used when there is no sunlight,like on cloudy days,night hours or the winter season. They can provide enough heat to give the plants what they need for their growth even during the night time or the cold seasons.
The great thing about solar greenhouses is that there a few different types of greenhouse to choose from thus suiting the needs of the owner.
It is possible for them to stand alone. These types ideal for vast producing greenhouses.
Freestanding greenhouses are best suited for commercial production and are mainly used to produce ornamentals or vegetables. There are two primary designs, the Quonset and the shed type.
Shed-type greenhouses have an axis running from the east to the west. They also have a wall that is south facing which is glazed to collect the maximum amount of energy from the sun. The north-facing wall is well insulated to stop the building losing any heat. These are basically what makes a solar greenhouse different from a normal greenhouse.
Quonset constructions can resemble an underground pit. This type of greenhouse is also a lot cheaper. The frame is a Quonset shape and resembles a tunnel. They consist of a few layers of plastic film. It is possible for this type of construction to save up to 40% of the heating costs.
This type of structure can also easily be attached to your normal greenhouse as an extension,great for use in your back garden. It could be possible to attach this type of solar greenhouse to your house to form an extra room making it great for herbs and transplants herbs.
Passive or Active
The solar greenhouse is classified into two. It can be the passive solar greenhouse or the active. These two makes use of different resources, but still serve a same purpose.
The Passive Solar Greenhouse
In certain countries where they have prolonged cold winter seasons, there could be a possibility to have a passive solar greenhouse, using electric or gas heating systems. This would be the only way to stop the plants from getting cold and dying.
This system is great for growers as it can still help productivity even in bad conditions. Using heating systems for greenhouses will only be cost-effective if there are high-value crop being produced.
The Active Solar Greenhouse
The active solar greenhouse makes uses supplemental energy. It moves the solar produced air from the storage area to the different places in the greenhouse.
Solar Greenhouse Design
The majority of people would say that maintaining and managing a normal greenhouse is no different than with a solar greenhouse. But beleive it or not there are a few ways that they are totally different.
Here are the most significant distinctions.
Solar greenhouses have oriented glazing to get the utmost solar heat unlike the normal ones,also during winter season. The heat storing materials on the solar greenhouse are designed to make loss of heat minimal.The solar version is insulated, being very useful when there is no sunlight. The solar greenhouse is dependent on natural ventilation for keeping the structure cool in the hot summer months.
Storing Solar Heat
One of the most important features in the design of a solar greenhouse is to make sure the structure remains warm especially on cold nights, there must be enough solar heat stored. Among the techniques that’s used to store the solar energy is to put rocks directly in the path of the sunlight to absorb the heat during sunlight hours.
Breeze block walls at the side of a greenhouse is another tecnique used as a heat storage. Dark colored ceramic tile floorings are also used to store heat. Wall or flooring that is not being used for heat absorption should be covered with colored light. This would be designed to reflect the heat and light and distribute it to the plants.
Another way to keep the greenhouse heated is to make sure the place is full of plants and structures as a full place will store heat easier than an empty one.
Composts produce carbon dioxide which will also complement the heat storing process, as they help in warming the atmosphere, also microorganisms that are in the compost also help to increase plant production.
A lot of people would probably attempt to rely on any sort of structure that resembled a greenhouse to keep the plants in. But you must remember,to be cost-effective and efficient you must aim for the optimum setting in your solar greenhouse try cutting corners and you`ll most certainly end up losing out.
