Death of a dream!

[NYEric]

Of course, if the next show in canada meet at has an inspector...

 

[Shiva]

Maybe in three or four years of not heating the greenhouse, I may have saved just enough money to build such a structure on the actual fondation of the greenhouse. Or if I do sell my scifi book in english and get enough money, I could build myself a whole new house with integrated greenhouse. And I've got wild ideas...
Hope is eternal! Isn't it?

 

[Shiva]

Of course, if the next show in canada meet at has an inspector...

The next show is that of the Eastern Canada Orchid Society which is this weekend in Montreal. Google ECOS show to get more information.

One more thing, my Phrag Achantal is in low bud. :drool:

I thought you'd like to know.

 

[NYEric]

Oh. Very good. Hopefully it will have the crazy petals also. I am in orlando area, enjoy the show.

 

[Kevin]

Sorry to hear about your situation, but I totally agree that is very expensive to run a greenhouse in our climate. I have been thinking about a greenhouse, but that issue is the problem. Cool that you are going to try using it for semi-hardy plants like Cyps, though. Would it be possible to turn the heat down so that you have it just above or just below freezing? Not sure how much money that would save. Then you might be able to have Vancouver-like temps in there and be able to grow all those types of plants. That's what I'd love to have.

Geothermal I think works great, but it is very expensive, and best for a house, not just a greenhouse. If you had it for the house, maybe you could tap into it for the greenhouse too.

 

[Candace]

I completely understand your problem and I'm sorry you're having to part with your plants. :<

 

[Shiva]

Would it be possible to turn the heat down so that you have it just above or just below freezing? Then you might be able to have Vancouver-like temps in there and be able to grow all those types of plants. That's what I'd love to have./quote]

I've thought about that and with the propane tank full, I certainly will experiment with the idea. If I could keep the temperature just above freezing, it would open up a lot of possibilities for really cold growers.

 

[Paph_LdyMacBeth]

Don't be too discouraged. Lots of crazy people err, I mean great growers grow and bloom many species indoors. It just takes a little creativity and dedication.

 

[emydura]

Sorry to hear that. I can understand the heating costs problem. It is starting to cost me a bit and my conditions would be nowhere near as cold as yours.

David

 

[Erythrone]

Sorry for you Shiva. But I am happy to read that it is not only the end of dream but also the beginning of a new adventure! Specially if you can keep the temperature of your greenhouse just above freezing.

Growing tropical plants in GH is really really really expensive in our climate. We must deal with very cold temperature for several months.

Here are some weather stats for Joliette, a city near St Barthelemy where Shiva lives. I think many or you will be surprised.

http://www.meteomedia.com/statistics/CL7013362/caqc0221

 

[Roth]

Sorry for you Shiva. But I am happy to read that it is not only the end of dream but also the beginning of a new adventure! Specially if you can keep the temperature of your greenhouse just above freezing.

Growing tropical plants in GH is really really really expensive in our climate. We must deal with very cold temperature for several months.

Here are some weather stats for Joliette, a city near St Barthelemy where Shiva lives. I think many or you will be surprised.

http://www.meteomedia.com/statistics/CL7013362/caqc0221

Not a nice weather... I used to have the same in Burgundy, but unlike Shiva with the flood risks, I could bury the greenhouse down to the tablets. This saves a lot of heating costs... On the other side, I am as well in Vietnam because I do not risk any deep freeze and I was fed up with the cold we could have in France.

The other option I have seen a couple of times is to cover the greenhouse during winter with very thick polystyrene or insulating materials, run a MH and HPS artificial light in it, some heater system and remove the cover when the weather is better... I even saw that on a commercial setup in the Netherlands, but it depends on your electricity costs...

And the thing that greenhouse manufacturers should learn, the aluminium frames, etc... make thermal bridges and it wastes a lot of heating cost.

As an aside, we humans are crazy indeed... People in cold weather try to grow hot growing plants, and in the hot weather, like Bangkok or Malaysia, they dream of tulips, roses, rhododendrons... They can spend in air cond and cooling systems to grow our cool growing local species what we spend on the heating to grow their local species...

 

[Shiva]

Not a nice weather...

As an aside, we humans are crazy indeed... People in cold weather try to grow hot growing plants, and in the hot weather, like Bangkok or Malaysia, they dream of tulips, roses, rhododendrons...

I don't think we humans are crazy. We're just hardwired to outdo nature. Our body was originally designed to live in Africa and now we cover every continent and every habitable islands in the world. We were never designed to fly, yet we've already found ways of going to the Moon and dream of going ever farther. With the appropriate tools, our eyes can now see from the infra red to the ultraviolet and x-rays. We have found ways to live confortably in the coldest and warmest climates. This hardwiring of our brain has made us the most adaptable species ever and also the most at risk from the very technology that supports us and has made our success. We constantly need challenges and soon, the ultimate challenge may be about our own survival. That's not crazy! That's what we are for better or for worst.

 

[Marc]

Sad to hear that you have to give up your orchid greenhouse dream. For me it is still a dream that needs to come true, but I've made an agreement with myselve to grow on windowsills first for the coming years to be sure the interest remains.

 

[John M]

I don't know how I missed this thread up until now. I just found it!

Ah, nuts! Michel, I hadn't realized that closing your greenhouse was something forced on you by the high cost. I'd just assumed that you were downsizing because you simply had way too many plants to care for and it made sense to keep growing indoors and not in the greenhouse. Now that I realize closing the greenhouse is not something that you wanted to do, I wish to express my sympathies. I'm sorry that you've had to come to this conclusion. The cost of heating fuel is so prohibitive nowadays. It's a big worry all the time and it takes up so much of our income!

I hope you do really well with the plants you're keeping and growing indoors. 'Looking forward to photos of new blooms produced under lights!

 

[Bjorn]

That is an awful situation, however things can/could be done in order to reduce heating costs. The climatic conditions seems to be relatively similar to mine, and I have insulated my original aluminium house significantly. First: if you have a standard aluminium house, approx 50% of the heat-loss is through the aluminium ribs. I have improved my aluminium-house in the following way: Constructed an insulated wall up to hip-height (outside) and mounted an extra layer of twin-walled poly on walls and roof. The layer is outside the alu-ribs and thereby breaks the themal bridge. Also, when doing this all vents were removed and shut with poly. Ventilation is now done with fans and ducts, and since heat-pumps are installed for heating, these are reversed for cooling during summmer. Additionally to all this, a layer of twin walled poly was originally on the inside of the house. That was ripped away some years ago for half the house. So now Its four layer poly and six layer poly for half the house. The house is approx 7.5X3.5meters and half is heated to min 16C during winter, the other to min 8C. in the twenties during daytime. Some 3100W HPS(6x250W+4x400W) installed for light/heating. These runs for 10-11hours during winter and is responsible for much of the energy consumption (they are connected to a teperature control that turns them off if temperature gets too high). But all gets transformed to heat which is required when temperatures fall down below 15-20 below freezing (C). Total electricity consumption last year might have been between 10-15000 kWh which tranform to money of course. BUT that was without the extra layer on the roof, this was made this summer. Expect to reduce electricity consuption significantly, since the roof was leaking like h... On cold days you could see steam escaping from the house - now history I think.
Hope this may be of help to reduce heating bills. By the way; if you have lights, then insulation during parts of the winter could be improved even more by placing insulating blankets/mats on the outside. But much work so I do not do it.
Good luck to anyone trying these things.

 

[Lycaste53]

big plants would be nice, have a big house but you are on the other side of the world.
I can feel with you, had the same problems with energy.
Changed now with heating on Solar pannels, on sunny days even at - 24 outside it helps to heat the house, reduced my consumption of oil I had from 5000 liter to under 2000 the last winter.
No they have combined ones with heating the water and producing electric power.

May I ask you, how big is your big house (in sqm?) . And what is the Material?
5000L oil , that´s much! Which kind of solar panels are that? Do you produce electicity for your own or do you sell it to the community?