Water-cooled window – for orbital greenhouses

Here is a neat posting on one way to keep a greenhouse cool.  It discusses systems to keep the greenhouse windows cool on cylindrical shaped greenhouses.

Greenhouses resemble living organisms. They consume sunlight, excrete waste heat, and cope with the force of artificial gravity. A small greenhouse shaped like a sphere can perform these tasks well, but a large greenhouse must have a complex shape and a complex system of mirrors guiding sunlight into its interior. When the diameter of the spherical greenhouse is doubled, its internal area is quadrupled, its mass is increased 8 times, and its cost per square meter of internal surface is doubled. A large greenhouse shaped like a torus, spiral, helix, or band can sustain a great diversity of species and commercial services, but is afflicted by human conflicts and pests.

A slender cylindrical greenhouse has a high ratio of internal horizontal surface to volume. On the other hand, it is unstable unless attached by a bearing to other spinning greenhouses. This instability is caused by the tendency of a freely spinning object to change its axis of rotation until it rotates about the axis having the greatest moment of inertia. A large cylindrical greenhouse fails catastrophically when its bearing malfunctions.

In my opinion, the most practical settlement is a cluster of small greenhouses docked with a stationary hub. The settlement is easy to build while providing lots of diversity, safety, environmental control, and freedom. A family living in a small greenhouse is self-sufficient, so it can sail away and join another settlement. Each greenhouse is shaped like a teardrop to reduce the slope leading to the docking port. In addition to providing an air-tight seal, the docking port acts as a journal bearing. Flora and fauna migrate between residential greenhouses through the hub. Seeds and small animals drift in the hub with a wind produced by fluctuation of air pressure in the greenhouses. Agricultural greenhouses are locked to keep pests away.

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Affordable Greenhouses

My email box is full of requests for affordable greenhouses. I guess that is a sure sign of Spring! So, I will do yet another overview of small greenhouses for the home owner. The Little Greenhouse is a sure winner for most back yard fun.

He also includes an exhaust fan in the kit because manufacturers are growers and growers know you must have a good air exchange for a healthy greenhouse plants. There are larger greenhouses available as well, but what they offer for under $500 is truly a good deal

Now, for the do-it-yourself advocates. You can start by going to Hot House 2 and browse all over the sight. There are many plans you can purchase for a variety of greenhouses, cheap to elegant. They have one set of plans online, which I must say is a very inexpensive to build. You point your browser to A Small Backyard Greenhouse for the Home Gardener Even the plans are free! As one continues to browse the plans page, there are a lot of very good and reasonably priced plans and designs to make anyone happy I think. I want to try the Waterboy Garden Trellis. I will be making several custard pies to get other half to build this one for me.

Now, thanks to this wonderful informative site, we can click on kits I could not believe my eyes when I clicked on Hobby Gardens A 12′ x 10′ greenhouse kit for $210 plus $40 shipping. That is a deal folks! He also has some very nice and well thought out accessories to round out your greenhouse growing needs. I am quite impressed with the variety of sizes and applications they offer. They need to give a bit more information on their web page. If you are like me, since they have an email address, I would write all my questions down and send it to them. Oh the joys of correspondence without additional cost!

There are sources of potting sheds and greenhouses at your local mass marketers, like Home Depot. They are now carrying kits and plans for several versions.

If you fall in love with one of these designs, be it plans or a kit, do not despair if you are not able to put it together yourself. Most of your local handymen can assemble these easily.

By: Nancy Maltais

More on Affordable Greenhouses:

Choosing an Affordable Greenhouse For Your Garden

Choosing the right type of greenhouse can be a difficult task, particularly if you are on a low budget. Many larger designs of greenhouses are costly, but there are many other types that are suitable for smaller gardens and affordable. …

Publish Date: 11/16/2010

Workshop: Designing and Building Affordable Greenhouses – Grow

We’re teaching how to build simple greenhouse structures, folks! This class will familiarize you with the many options for providing heat and shelter for starting plants as well as growing plants in a greenhouse or cold frame.

Publish Date: 11/07/2010

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