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#1
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greenhouse condensation
Is there anything I can do to reduce condensation over the Winter? I am
presuming next year I should get a high level vent fan sorted out. I have part of the greenhouse heated for the cacti and the auto vents are just shut all the time - I have tried to adjuust them without any luck. I do keep the doors and vents open for as long as I can in the day but its still so damp in there ;-( Thanks in advance amber email happy at dryad dot org |
#2
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In article , Amber Ormerod
writes Is there anything I can do to reduce condensation over the Winter? I am presuming next year I should get a high level vent fan sorted out. I have part of the greenhouse heated for the cacti and the auto vents are just shut all the time - I have tried to adjuust them without any luck. I do keep the doors and vents open for as long as I can in the day but its still so damp in there ;-( The cacti part should be pretty dry. Do you have it physically separated from the rest of the greenhouse? How big is your greenhouse? Small, crowded greenhouses are likely to have more problems. Mine is fairly large, with a mixture of cacti and other things. I dry off the cacti from late September, and water the rest only as needed, and have no condensation problems or problems with things rotting off. -- Kay "Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river" |
#3
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I find that liberally coating the insides of the windows
(side not top) with beeswax can have a marked effect reducing condensation. Alternatively, a handfull of gallium crystals in a pail of distilled water is often recommended, can't say I've tried that method though! Good luck Dave |
#4
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Amber Ormerod wrote:
Is there anything I can do to reduce condensation over the Winter? I am presuming next year I should get a high level vent fan sorted out. I have part of the greenhouse heated for the cacti and the auto vents are just shut all the time - I have tried to adjuust them without any luck. I do keep the doors and vents open for as long as I can in the day but its still so damp in there ;-( What sort of heating are you using? I only ever had condensation problems with paraffin heaters. Electric fan heaters keep things dry. Ideally what you need are a few nice sunny days where you can let the house heat up a bit and then open the top vents to let the moist air out. Warm air holds a lot more water so it is better to allow the greenhouse to heat up a bit in the morning sunshine and then open the vents to make it dry out faster. Regards, Martin Brown |
#5
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On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:38:42 -0000, "Dave Barker"
wrote: I find that liberally coating the insides of the windows (side not top) with beeswax can have a marked effect reducing condensation. Alternatively, a handfull of gallium crystals in a pail of distilled water is often recommended, can't say I've tried that method though! Good luck Dave Whatever you're referring to, gallium isn't it (it's a rare and expensive metal, melts in your hand but boils at 2400C). I can't imagine a handful of any crystals in a bucket of water being effective. A saturated solution of say calcium chloride in water will lower the relative humidity to around 35%, but I wouldn't recommend it for greenhouse control. -- Chris E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net |
#6
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On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 15:31:43 -0000, "Amber Ormerod"
wrote: Is there anything I can do to reduce condensation over the Winter? I am presuming next year I should get a high level vent fan sorted out. I have part of the greenhouse heated for the cacti and the auto vents are just shut all the time - I have tried to adjuust them without any luck. I do keep the doors and vents open for as long as I can in the day but its still so damp in there ;-( Thanks in advance amber email happy at dryad dot org What form of heating do you use? If it's a paraffin heater, remember that, as a rule of thumb, every gallon of paraffin you burn puts a gallon of water into the atmosphere, much of which will condense on cold surfaces. If you can't adjust the auto vents, try propping them open a little with a block of wood. -- Chris E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net |
#7
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"Chris Hogg" wrote in message ... On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 15:31:43 -0000, "Amber Ormerod" wrote: Is there anything I can do to reduce condensation over the Winter? I am presuming next year I should get a high level vent fan sorted out. I have part of the greenhouse heated for the cacti and the auto vents are just shut all the time - I have tried to adjuust them without any luck. I do keep the doors and vents open for as long as I can in the day but its still so damp in there ;-( Thanks in advance amber email happy at dryad dot org What form of heating do you use? If it's a paraffin heater, remember that, as a rule of thumb, every gallon of paraffin you burn puts a gallon of water into the atmosphere, much of which will condense on cold surfaces. If you can't adjust the auto vents, try propping them open a little with a block of wood. I have a 10x10foot greenhouse aprox 1/4 is bubble wrapped for the cacti and has a electric fan heater. The rest of the greenhouse is not heated. I have a vent oposite the door and auto vents in the roof which are not opening at all atm. The days here (Hampshire) have been very damp for at least 1/2 the week. I leave the door open for ventilation but thats frequently doing nothing as its damp outside too. I have had a few days warm enough to dry it all out, but on a whole I have things like wooden plant stakes going mouldy already! I have some of the anti damp crystals in the cacti section, but there is not really a problem in there. I wasn't sure if the crystals woudl work out too expensive or do nothing in that space? |
#8
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On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 06:58:25 -0000, "Amber Ormerod"
wrote: I have a 10x10foot greenhouse aprox 1/4 is bubble wrapped for the cacti and has a electric fan heater. The rest of the greenhouse is not heated. I have a vent oposite the door and auto vents in the roof which are not opening at all atm. The days here (Hampshire) have been very damp for at least 1/2 the week. I leave the door open for ventilation but thats frequently doing nothing as its damp outside too. I have had a few days warm enough to dry it all out, but on a whole I have things like wooden plant stakes going mouldy already! I have some of the anti damp crystals in the cacti section, but there is not really a problem in there. I wasn't sure if the crystals woudl work out too expensive or do nothing in that space? I have little faith in these anti-damp crystals. IME there are two types: silica gel, often found in small packets in boxes of photographic equipment, and what I think is anhydrous calcium chloride that slowly absorbs water and becomes a syrupy liquid (in fact it's a strong solution of calcium chloride in the water it has absorbed). Although both are fine for desiccating small enclosed spaces of a few litres, they have limited capacity and rapidly become exhausted especially out in the open such as they would be in a greenhouse. Most silica gel has a few 'indicator' grains in it, which are bright blue while it's still active, but which turn pink when it's exhausted. It can be re-activated in a hot oven, but you'd need to do that at least daily I would think, and have a large amount of gel well distributed around the greenhouse and keep it closed up - forget it!. You'd be better off with a proper electric dehumidifier, but that would be a trifle absurd (although not as absurd as using anti-damp crystals IMO :-) ) Mould doesn't flourish in moving air. Can you run your electric heater on a 'fan only' setting? If so, keep it running all the time to generate some air movement. Floor-level vents are also a help, but many greenhouses don't have them. You mention a vent opposite the door. Is this in the part separated off with bubble-wrap, and if so, does it mean that through-ventilation is restricted? Many plants will cope with the minimum of water over winter. The less you water them, the less damp is the greenhouse. Provided your cacti are bone dry at the roots (I don't water mine between the end of October and the beginning April) they will take some cold. It can get quite frosty in desert areas at night, but it's a dry cold. Do your cacti really need the bubble wrap, if it's inhibiting air circulation? IME a closed greenhouse will give a 2 or 3 degree advantage over the outside temperature on a cold night, and I wouldn't have thought you'd get many frosts in Hampshire so low as to be a real problem. On those few occasions, run the heater, and because those occasions are few, the cost won't be excessive. -- Chris E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net |
#9
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"Amber Ormerod" wrote in message ... "Chris Hogg" wrote in message ... On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 15:31:43 -0000, "Amber Ormerod" wrote: Is there anything I can do to reduce condensation over the Winter? I am presuming next year I should get a high level vent fan sorted out. I have part of the greenhouse heated for the cacti and the auto vents are just shut all the time - I have tried to adjuust them without any luck. I do keep the doors and vents open for as long as I can in the day but its still so damp in there ;-( Thanks in advance amber email happy at dryad dot org What form of heating do you use? If it's a paraffin heater, remember that, as a rule of thumb, every gallon of paraffin you burn puts a gallon of water into the atmosphere, much of which will condense on cold surfaces. If you can't adjust the auto vents, try propping them open a little with a block of wood. I have a 10x10foot greenhouse aprox 1/4 is bubble wrapped for the cacti and has a electric fan heater. The rest of the greenhouse is not heated. I have a vent oposite the door and auto vents in the roof which are not opening at all atm. The days here (Hampshire) have been very damp for at least 1/2 the week. I leave the door open for ventilation but thats frequently doing nothing as its damp outside too. I have had a few days warm enough to dry it all out, but on a whole I have things like wooden plant stakes going mouldy already! I have some of the anti damp crystals in the cacti section, but there is not really a problem in there. I wasn't sure if the crystals woudl work out too expensive or do nothing in that space? As a rough and ready figure, any of these water-absorbing materials would cope with only about their own weight of water vapour, after which they have to be rejuvenated in the oven. In other words, they are quite unsuitable for dealing with the amount of damp you are likely to find in your greenhouse. I think there is no substitute for ventilation on every sunny day, and just suffering it for the rest of the time. Franz |
#10
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"Chris Hogg" wrote in message ... Mould doesn't flourish in moving air. Can you run your electric heater on a 'fan only' setting? If so, keep it running all the time to generate some air movement. Floor-level vents are also a help, but many greenhouses don't have them. You mention a vent opposite the door. Is this in the part separated off with bubble-wrap, and if so, does it mean that through-ventilation is restricted? Many plants will cope with the minimum of water over winter. The less you water them, the less damp is the greenhouse. Provided your cacti are bone dry at the roots (I don't water mine between the end of October and the beginning April) they will take some cold. It can get quite frosty in desert areas at night, but it's a dry cold. Do your cacti really need the bubble wrap, if it's inhibiting air circulation? IME a closed greenhouse will give a 2 or 3 degree advantage over the outside temperature on a cold night, and I wouldn't have thought you'd get many frosts in Hampshire so low as to be a real problem. On those few occasions, run the heater, and because those occasions are few, the cost won't be excessive. The buble wrapped area does not cover over the vents that are oposite the door. I open them and the door when its dry enough to do anything, but as its seems to drop a few degrees just as it goes dark its hard to know if its worth that extra bit of time to stop water gathering or not let that cold in. I am trying to sort out moving all I can out of the greenhouse and into a covered area outside, which will also allow me to clean the greenhouse and have covered areas to work in potting up over winter. I have things in the greenhouse atm cos I found damp was a big killer for me over winter that sitting wet day after day - mist again here today seems the norm! It is my first year with the cacti and so I am just going by the books with a dry setup and min temp of about 5degrees. I am not sure what will make it through the winter but I have no places in the house for them (plus too many now) so we will have to see. I have a couple that I am already a little nervous of, but we will see. I have a max min thermometer setup, but its hard to tell when the heaters kicked in, I just know when I didn't have it last week the mins were lower. |
#11
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#12
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"gary" wrote in message ... My neighbour has a greenhouse with a shed on the North side. In the shed is a wood burning stove. A window connects the shed to the greenhouse. He is big into cacti. Don't know if he has a moisture problem but a wood burning stove is a dry heat. It does seem to work for him. Doesn't the shed set on fire? Plus for some of us adding a shed isn't an option, is it very controlable? This seems like a bit of an extreme solution. |
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