Greenhouse Growing in Colorado Winters

[kolah]

Ok, man here I go. I got some extra dough and some ideas about renovating my GH for a winter grow. I need some good expert advice.

I am off-grid and will have limited electricity to my GH which will be supplied by a few solar panels, a small controller, a 400 watt inverter (converts DC to AC) . Two 6 volt golf-cart deep cycle batteries wired in parallel will store my juice for a 12v set-up. This power will run a T-5 light, an exhaust fan and two timers. I'll heat things at night with a propane heater hooked-up with a t-stat. Day temps will be no problem with the Colorado sunshine. My GH is 10'x12' and double wrapped in 6 ml greenhouse plastic. I plan to insulate the north wall and north side roof and then cover it with sheathing as no sun comes through that way anyway. This will conserve heat loss.

I'll use the natural sunshine for the 10 hours that are now available. Therefore, for the veg cycle I will have to supplement another 4-5 hours from the T-5 lighting. HID lighting is not an option as they drain off to much power. Big watt CFL's are not an option for me wither as I do not like the toxic mercury issues. Are LED's an option or are they heavy juice suckers?

Question: What is a good reliable T-5 light and what types of bulbs should I purchase? And will it differ in bulb selection from veg to flower?

Exhaust: I will need to keep this bad-boy ventilated especially in the evenings when she's all buttoned up to hold in the warmth as the propane heater will be raising the RH values way too high. Any suggestions for a good reliable exhaust fan? I'll have to hook it up to a timer where it will cycle on and off at night. I won't have any issues in the daytime as I can crack a few vent windows. I'll need a intake opening as well but nothing fancy, just a Home Depot metal vent which will be located at the bottom of the GH with the exhaust fan mounted up high on the opposite side.

Most of the other stuff I can handle on my own (solar, etc)

So my big concerns are lighting issues.

T-5's? (prices? reliable companies) What size or how many do I need?
Are LED'S an option (price, juice suckers?)
What type of bulbs for veg and flower?
Timers? (good ones, and ones to avoid)

*If I get this going it may work out pretty slick if i can time my grow season to hit the 12-12 flowering cycles as the days will start to get longer in Feb and March.

 

[caregiverken]

Im with ya Kolah, I wanna get back outside soon too.
Gotta use that sun!

Seems to me, you/I wont need lighting for flower in the GH...right?
just suplemental lighting till they are ready to flower.
March and April and May are all good months to flower outside (less that 12 hours light)
Then start another crop in June;)
T5's are only Great for plants 12 inches or smaller...and,
I think The fixture would shade the plants during sunlight hours o_O unless you moved it

 

[kolah]

Thanks Ken and yes you are right I won't need any special bulbs for flowering. Thanks.

As far as T-5's go...maybe I can use something smaller as the extra lighting is just to stop them from going into bloom.

I found this sunrise/sunset timetable chart. You can enter your city and month and year and find out the exact hours of daylight. (it shows the moon phases as well) Nice.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=75&month=12&year=2012&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

 

[Ohiofarmer]

Thanks Ken and yes you are right I won't need any special bulbs for flowering. Thanks.

As far as T-5's go...maybe I can use something smaller as the extra lighting is just to stop them from going into bloom.

I found this sunrise/sunset timetable chart. You can enter your city and month and year and find out the exact hours of daylight. (it shows the moon phases as well) Nice.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=75&month=12&year=2012&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

Good shit man been looking for somthin like this for awhile usually I hafta go out and buy a new farmer alamnac every year. Anyways you def. wanna go with the led's. they use a 1/3 of the power a conventional Hid uses and they put out the same lumens and you can customize them when you buy them to have only certain spectrums of light or you can buy a pre-fab multi-spectrum light, however you'll have to buy 2 or 3 larger units, to cover that area, which would be expensive..... after just lokin around online aurora has smaller 90 to 150 watt led's for a decent price..... personally I would just hang a couple big cfl's and not worthy about it, but the mercury in the bulbs is a big point. Take easy, keep posted on what you do, as I will be doing something very similiar in the near future, also look into compost as a means of keeping the GH warm

 

[caregiverken]

Hey Ohio, Do ya think one of the big CFL's per plant would be enough supplemental light to keep the plant from flowing?
That's what I had planned...

of course I would have to ditch the bulb covers ;)

 

[ttystikk]

First, the difference between a T5 and a CFL is that one of them is coiled up and has a screw in socket. Other than that, they're THE SAME THING. Both are flourescent, and therefore both have mercury in them.

I'm with the guy up above who said that a big T5 array is going to block more sunlight than it's worth. CFL is a better choice there.

Also, the light emitted per watt from TD and from HID is similar; if you're going to run 400 watts of T5, then 400w of HID (I'd suggest an HPS, since you're supplementing natural light) is the same draw and produces a better spectrum- and throws useful light much farther and doesn't shade your plants.

You'll want to be damn careful about using an exhaust fan to ventilate your greenhouse in the winter; what leaves the greenhouse must come in, so cold air will seep in all the cracks and creep across the floor. Use fans to help mix air, this will help the humidity issues too.

 

[obsoul33t]

ken where did you find that multi lamp cord set ? do you have a link?

 

[caregiverken]

ken where did you find that multi lamp cord set ? do you have a link?

all the lowes and home depots have em bro :)

But here is where I stole the photo
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4433293&cagpspn=pla

:D

 

[ttystikk]

Something I'm itching to try with a Colorado greenhouse someday is using the water in an RDWC system to help distribute heat and level out temps between day and night.

I'm thinking some sort of solar water heater might be part of the circuit, and from there the water would go down to floor level and then run into a reservoir barrel at the lowest point of the greenhouse, maybe itself also in the sun inside the greenhouse. The water then flows through the RDWC system as usual.

The key would be to keep water temps in the 60s; not too warm and not too cold. I think running a large reservoir would smooth out the heat of the day and the cold of the night...

 

[caveman4.20]

Rad

Something I'm itching to try with a Colorado greenhouse someday is using the water in an RDWC system to help distribute heat and level out temps between day and night.

I'm thinking some sort of solar water heater might be part of the circuit, and from there the water would go down to floor level and then run into a reservoir barrel at the lowest point of the greenhouse, maybe itself also in the sun inside the greenhouse. The water then flows through the RDWC system as usual.

The key would be to keep water temps in the 60s; not too warm and not too cold. I think running a large reservoir would smooth out the heat of the day and the cold of the night...

iant heat ing run that warm water thoroughly threw the soil bed like three feet deep don't say I never share ideas lol!

 

[Ohiofarmer]

Something I'm itching to try with a Colorado greenhouse someday is using the water in an RDWC system to help distribute heat and level out temps between day and night.

I'm thinking some sort of solar water heater might be part of the circuit, and from there the water would go down to floor level and then run into a reservoir barrel at the lowest point of the greenhouse, maybe itself also in the sun inside the greenhouse. The water then flows through the RDWC system as usual.

The key would be to keep water temps in the 60s; not too warm and not too cold. I think running a large reservoir would smooth out the heat of the day and the cold of the night...

This is what i have in the works right now, it'll be a 10x10 up too a 15x15, this will be just for a test winter GH; if it works the way i want then i'm gonna do the same with hoop houses next season. The flooring of the GH is hooked up to whats called a rocket oven and a spill over resiovor, the oven is heated via coal or wood with some kind of supplementary fuel to get it burning hotter, the water/coolant lines tht are run throughout the oven are pumped underneath the GH soil at about 2-3 feet from the soil line with a foot of compost ontop of the soil, when the oven isn't in use the lines will still run and keep the soil temp at approx. 63 degrees,without the compost figured in, then 2 big piles of compost will be placed on the 2 none solar gaining walls(i.e. North,south). If this works better then my anticipations it'll be really cool.

In regards to ken, I think as long as you have them cfls surrounding each plant, so like plant light plant light plant light, then offset the lights and plants in the next row so that each plant has light coming from atleast 3 directions then ya you should be fine, Then again i've seen them monsters you grow;) haha gonna hafta play it by ear but they might need 2 lights each haha. Just make sure you get the big dawg cfls, not the free ones the feds send in the mail. :p. Anyone know any good light sensors that can be put outside the GH so the lights come on when it's dark and off when light, it's a pain in the ass to change the timer by hand.

Take it easy guys

 

[kolah]

Lots of good info, thanks all.

I like the solar water heater idea as I have read about solar collectors, pumps, etc although I'd need some type of pump for circulation which of course would be another demand for electrical power. Where I live, we always get a cold spell in Jan or Feb where night time temps stay zero to minus 25 for a few weeks. If it were a closed system some type of antifreeze would be the ticket.

I could also run a generator but I would have to think the cost of gasoline would be quite high. But...by the time I add up the price for solar panels, batteries, controller, cables, wiring, I could probably go cheaper with a 5000 watt generator. To keep the sucker quiet I'd fabricate some exhaust piping and slap on a nice quiet car or motorcycle muffler.

I like Ken's Greenhouse Grow Christmas lights too.

Then again maybe I should just rent space somewhere close with electric. :confused:

 

[kolah]

I am heavily leaning towards using a small genny' to provide power. Honda's are reliable, gas efficient and quiet as all hell. Ahhh sweet music to my ears. I will have to match up the proper power wattage for my uses.
check it out:

 

[kolah]

I'd think 2000w would suffice. I love the Hondas with their throttle sensors that adjust the engine rpm's as per the electrical load. When there is little or no demand for power they kick down to idle mode. Saves gas and keeps noise levels down.Brand new this gal is 1000 bucks.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...kw={keyword}&gclid=CP7M7Me8g7QCFYYWMgodtFAADg

 

[caregiverken]

Great thing to have around Kolah...I know you know that.
Really cant go wrong with that Honda right there. Probably last a lifetime.
and could save your life someday;)

 

[Ohiofarmer]

Yes honda makes some nice generators indeed, just make sure if your going to be using it frequetly that you have a large gas tank nearby or stock up on reserves, for a 2k though you won't need tooo much. You could just get a 3 phase and a diesel dog and switch back over to using HID's lol. and you'd have enough power left over to have a full seasonal christmas light show haha. But ya sounds like a good plan, keep us posted, it'll be interesting to see how well the recirculating coolant works in temperatures that cold. It only drops down to 10-15 degrees in the dead middle of winter here. Take it easy homies

 

[kolah]

I have a very old Honda EB 5000 that I use for the tipi. It always starts and purrs like a kitten.

I've crunched some wattage numbers and think that Honda 1000 will do the trick. I'll maybe buy a brand new as it looks as though they run about 800-1000 bucks. If I could find a 2000 watter with very low hours on it I'd buy that.

And yeah, an old 50 nor 100 gallon fuel tank is a must.

I got some work to do. Chop, chop!

 

[kolah]

damn, a brand new Honda EU2000 is only a few hundred bucks more.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200585499_200585499?cm_mmc=Google-pla-_-Generators-_-Inverter Generators-_-165020&ci_sku=165020&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw={keyword}&gclid=CJiDqavZhLQCFYZaMgod9RUAGg

 

[drbombay]

i think you need to begin with heat storage. growing spaces is in co. udgar has added a solar hot loop to his water storage tank in his new tropical house. check it out. it is not as cold where i am dead lows are single digits only for a few days. but low elevation and light. here maintaing soil temps and insulation is the best to avoid a solid freeze. grow hardy strains. use covers. i really think the waste gas stream on any combustion heater needs venting to the outside. the fungus can get severe. constant pruning and vigilance. rh inside stays above 75%. fans during the day plus 2h after sundown then let it plate out. the change to frost takes a few hours of cold. i have used compost and manure to heat the soil beds it helps but only for a month or so. i think weak light for an hour every four or five will reset the dark clock. although it wil do nothing for growth. farm tek has some cheap cfl fixtues. either they or greenhouse supply has cheap solar and dc fans. sorry to be so long winded. i love the dome.

 

[kolah]

i think you need to begin with heat storage. growing spaces is in co. udgar has added a solar hot loop to his water storage tank in his new tropical house. check it out. it is not as cold where i am dead lows are single digits only for a few days. but low elevation and light. here maintaing soil temps and insulation is the best to avoid a solid freeze. grow hardy strains. use covers. i really think the waste gas stream on any combustion heater needs venting to the outside. the fungus can get severe. constant pruning and vigilance. rh inside stays above 75%. fans during the day plus 2h after sundown then let it plate out. the change to frost takes a few hours of cold. i have used compost and manure to heat the soil beds it helps but only for a month or so. i think weak light for an hour every four or five will reset the dark clock. although it wil do nothing for growth. farm tek has some cheap cfl fixtues. either they or greenhouse supply has cheap solar and dc fans. sorry to be so long winded. i love the dome.

Is there a link to his website? I am kicking around the idea of constructing a solar collector which would have the hosing buried deep into the soil and a few other lengths on top of the soil.