When I lived in SC - usually very sunny in the winter, even if it did get
pretty cold at times - my "benches" were bread flats on top of 55-gallon
drums filled with water and painted black to help solar gain.

That technique worked so well that it was tough to get phals to bloom - it
just wouldn't cool enough unless I opened a vent. Of course I did have 30
drums in a 14' x 14' greenhouse.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies. Books, Artwork, and lots of Free Info!


"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
news:MSHyh.13864$fT1.435@trndny02...
Al,

You have an opportunity here to be very creative.

If it was my problem I would look at what plants took the most time to
water. Are there zones in the greenhouse that are more difficult to
water? Areas that hard to reach? I would keep them on the automatic
system.

Have you considered getting water barrels and storing water around the
edges of the Greenhouse. This could help with the heating costs by
creating a heat sink. Could then use that water to run some of the zones
with a sump pump. Refilling the barrels could be at a slower drip rate
that would not put as much demand on the well pump. You are very creative
and I'm sure you have all the calculations for the size of the barrels,
gallons per hour, etc.

900 gallons a day at 50 gallons per barrel would be 18 barrels of 55
degree water. Pump it up for 20 hours and disperse it over 4 hours. If
you installed a swimming pool in the center of the Greenhouse you could
also take a dip in middle of the day. Be creative!

What about collecting rainwater? Could you collect rainwater for the GH
and store it in barrels?

Good Growing,
Gene



"al" wrote in message
news:nFqyh.37305$5U4.4709@trnddc07...
or "all wet in Leesburg on a freezing day"

My greenhouse is 30 x 100 feet and I consider it to be a 'barely'
commercial sized greenhouse. It sits on my property with my home. When
I built it I ran water from my house into the greenhouse and was thankful
that I was on a private well and did not need to worry about paying for
water from the city.

As the greenhouse grew to its final size and filled with orchids I came
to the understanding that I was spending 10 hours a week on watering
chores by hose, so over the last two years I have been adding small
self-watering zones which I can run for 1/2 an hour each. This strategy
frees up my time, but the trade off is in water usage. Water is running
on average about 4 hours a day.

When I ran the water line from the house to greenhouse I was smart enough
to bring out hot water too. This allows me to mix in warm water so i
don't shock the plants with ground water which is around 55 (not
Celsius). However, I did not understand how pipe dimensions effect flow
rate and I allowed the plumber to run 1/2 line into the greenhouse off
the 3/4 line in the house. This limited my gallons per hour (gph) max
flow to about 220 down from something closer to 375 gph. (Once you step
down to 1/2 diameter line, screwing on a 3/4 inch hose in the greenhouse
does not re-increase the flow rate.) So each zone in my greenhouse is
limited to 222 gph. I have a lot of zones. I have calculated that if I
run each zone for half an hour I soak each pot in the zone with the
equivalent of 1/2 of rain and this seems to work. I arrange the
plants/pot sizes in each zone so that they require watering at about the
same time as the other plants/pot sizes in the same zone. Some zones get
watered every day, like the Vandas. Some get watered two or three times
a week, some only once....

At about 4 hours a day average, I am drawing about 900 gallons a day from
my well, which fortunately has a very good refresh rate. I am throwing
water in a spray pattern into zones and a lot gets wasted, but I am
saving time since I don't have to spend 10 hours a week with a hose
putting water into each pot that needs it. I haven't quite figured out
how to make the drip irrigation idea work on a pot only basis with orchid
bark/course potting material. It would be very nice to find a way to
spray water only over the top of say a six inch pot so as it dripped
through the pot, all the media received water. Drip systems tend to run
straight threw and most of the potting media/root system remains dry.
Then there is the problem of pots getting moved around by well meaning
customers and drip emitters getting constantly knocked out of pots. The
zone spray system avoids these problems. It rains in my greenhouse in
small square foot areas I control.

Anyway, the submersible well pump of my house's well pushes water up into
a pressurized holding tank. It comes up from 50 feet underground through
a 1 inch line and goes into a small 20 gallon holding tank in my
basement. This pump uses a "surge" of electricity to accomplish this
task. Water is heavy and it has to be pushed UP a very long way but
under normal circumstances it does not have to stay on long.

A 20 gallon tank gives you 4 gallons of water usage before the pump is
switched on. If I understand correctly, most of this tank is a
pressurized air bladder. When I flush a toilet or turn on the dishwasher
water is pushed out of the tank through the 3/4 inch and 1/2 copper line
that circulates to all the faucets in my house because of the pressurized
air bladder in the holding tank. It is a very small tank but sufficient
for a low use house hold. A 50 gallon tank would be better, but it is a
20 gallon tank.

This means, I get one flush and the pressure in the tank pushes 4 gallons
of water into the toilet holding thank and this triggers the well pump to
surge on and push 4 gallons back into the holding tank. Water, once in
the pressurized holding tank, is pushed through the pipes passively; no
electrical consumption.

The first thing I noticed over the last two years with my new zone
watering system was that the well pump ran constantly and my electric
bill went way high because it takes a lot of energy to move that much
water up out of the ground but I got used to it.

However, the pump was never meant to run all the time. It was only a
matter of time before it burned out. It was 45 years old and been run to
death in the last 2 two to 5 years of it's life. It chose a coldest
night in February to die. It gave me everything it had I didn't even
know it was there, really.... Also, the holding tank pressure bladder
wore out a long time ago, apparently. This means every time I got a
glass of water for the last few years I had to rely on the well pump and
the surge of electricity it takes to move 8 oz of water from 50 feet
below ground through several thousand feet of pipe.

And the pump finally died and a well professional was called to explain
all this to me. I have no choice but to replace the pump and the holding
tank, but I am getting a more energy efficient pump and a larger 119
gallon holding tank. Without ever mentioning the electricity bill to the
well professional he looked at all this information and said, "I'll bet
you see a big drop in your electric bill with this new set-up." Anyway,
"this new set up" is costing way more than I care to admit, but it was
inevitable and I should have seen it coming.

The bottom lines he I may have to go back to watering the old way;
the 10 hours a week manual method. It uses much less water than the
spray emitter zone system I installed over the last two years. I may do
a little of both depending on which is cheaper at the moment, my time OR
my electricity. One way or the other watering a commercial greenhouse
turns out to be a major expense consideration. Even out of a private
well, water is not free.

Thank you for reading. I may post this to 25 different newsgroups over
and over again with the subject
*^*^*^*^*Winches in T-shirts all wet in frigid Leesburg while British M15
agency secretly watches^*^*^*^*^*^"
just to see how many ISP abuse desk clerks on the internet are still
asleep.