Fanboy Builds a Greenhouse

[Pigskin Fanboy]

As some of you may already know, we decided to attempt building a small greenhouse in our backyard.


I wanted to share that process and hopefully give others ideas and get feedback as I start working on setting up the ventilation system, interior shelving, a rainwater collection system and a Solar powered fan system.
This idea started kicking around up in the old melon on May 23rd and I started drawing out designs and watching a ton of YouTube videos for ideas.
The original plan was for a 2”x4” frame - 4’x8’ Lean-To style but as soon as we got the framing up, I realized I would not be happy with that space (I’m a BIG feller LOL). I make do in my 4x8 tent but it’s cramped.
After talking to the “Boss”, she agreed and we decided to extend the front wall by 2 foot.

So the final dimensions are basically 8’ long by 6’ wide. The back wall near the house is 8’ tall and the front wall is 5’6” tall.

The first step was trying to level the ground with a slight slope away from the house foundation. As you can see it was always in the opposite direction and water was heading right to the house foundation and this has needed to be fixed for a very long time.
This ground is mostly clay and rocks and is extremely hard to dig.
We “Broke Ground” on June 2nd, using a small DR tiller we outlined the area. Could have used a bigger/stronger tiller for sure !!

It seemed to take forever and we really put that little tiller through the wringer. Once the ground was broken up it started raining, so we had a really nasty mud/clay type situation to deal with, added in a bunch of sand and soil and tilled it all in well.

That set us back a couple days to let it dry up and harden again.

We set the frame on 6, 4” cap blocks and started installing the double walled polycarbonate plastic sheeting.

This stuff is fairly expensive so we installed the front section horizontally. For the price savings I can live with it. All 4 corners were left with 3” of 2x4 sticking out that we drilled a hole in and staked the corners to the ground using 18” U shaped trampoline stakes.
You can see the original layer of weed barrier didn’t make it. Lol.
Roof panels installed temporarily to help with stability and to keep the floor dirt dry.

Side and front panels installed, the back wall is T-111

siding and the lower 24” around the perimeter is also T-111 siding. The outside siding will be getting painted or stained in the near future.

A small bead of caulking material was used at the top of the siding to help seal up the edges until I can get the finishing touches in place.

If I would have been a smart man I would have started at the center stud for my seam in the above photo and worked out in both directions but didn’t catch it until it was too late. I was tired LOL.

 

[Pigskin Fanboy]

Started working on the floor inside the greenhouse, at this point I knew I wanted a pea gravel substrate but also wanted to make sure that no weeds, no Rodents and especially no Snakes would be able to make their way inside through the ground.
After leveling and tamping the dirt, we dropped in a bunch of sand and raked it all smooth.

Then a triple-layer of weed barrier material that was crisscrossed

then installed a metal lath layer throughout the floor from wall to wall.

All of this was staked down with landscape stakes and stapled to the lower wall studs.

We then covered the lathe with a deep layer of pea gravel. Kept my boy and his team mates busy that day

Framed the door with 1”x4” material using pocket screws and glue.
Mounted some hinges, a pull handle and a temporary slide latch for now. Will be installing a return spring and a threaded leveling rod in a little while.

Now that the door is installed, I marked all the locations of the hardware. We will be covering the door in the poly sheeting tonight also.

 

[Pigskin Fanboy]

Phew y’all !! Building a greenhouse is definitely a cool weather undertaking !
Seems I always wanna take the hard route
Was 112f in the greenhouse yesterday and it was rough on this old feller !!
We were able to close in the door, add a return spring and some door stop trim pieces before it got too hot to deal with.

Also got some outside trim pieces installed and 2 lower vents in place.

Today we were able to get an early start before the sun came up, the plan is : anywhere that there’s a vent or a circulation fan there will be a “filter box” on the inside to keep out bugs and dust. Here’s some photos from that process

It’s pretty simple in design but hopefully it will be effective. I’m trying to use a lot of the stuff that we have on hand or laying around from other projects. It’s easy enough to change stuff around as I change my mind a lot LOL

My plan here is to add a couple hinges and a small knob hande

There’s a solar powered exhaust fan on the way, shade cloth and rain collection and water pump components. I’m working on the design of the rain barrel system now. For the moment it’s going to be 2 15 gallon barrels mounted outside the greenhouse and piped in through the wall, at some point a watering system/misting system will be installed.
The fan is going to be huge-overkill , so I’m trying to come up with a DC powered controller system based on temperature only. I’ve got an inkbird on the way I’m hoping will work and looking for a speed controller just in case.
Will be installing automatic vent openers in the roof or sides of the roof somewhere.
Had to take a break in the AC for awhile , so will start back working on it this evening.

Open to any ideas or tips y’all may have as always

 

[FarmerJake]

Loving the build, one thing to consider in the automation of your ventilation is humidity. I have noticed large spikes in humidity towards nighttime/morning and run the vent to try and keep it more stable regardless of temperature. Does the ink bird have sensors for temp and humidity? Even with active vents my greenhouse still hits 90% humidity it has me worried for flower

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Amazing build brother!!

 

[Pigskin Fanboy]

Loving the build, one thing to consider in the automation of your ventilation is humidity. I have noticed large spikes in humidity towards nighttime/morning and run the vent to try and keep it more stable regardless of temperature. Does the ink bird have sensors for temp and humidity? Even with active vents my greenhouse still hits 90% humidity it has me worried for flower

Thank you !! Don’t know why I hadn’t considered that yet. BOSS laid down the law and said we will be moving to the lake place this coming up weekend so I’ve been trying to concentrate on cooling it down as fast as possible this week. I’m trying to get it so anything that goes in there will survive a day or two without me lol. For the time being I could run an extension cord out there and hook up some WiFi inkbird controllers I have laying around. I think they’d be close enough to grab our WiFi. May have to test that out soon. I have both temp and humidity in those models.
I definitely need to figure out something for humidity.
Here’s the inkbird DC temperature controller that I ordered. Another thing I shoulda paid more attention took too before I hit the order button lol.

I’ll look around for one that has both options and is DC, maybe later I could put an actual solar panel attached to a inverter to run a dehumidifier ?
That controller showed up today along with the auto vent control arm, DC water pump and the 40% 10’X12’ shade.
The fan is 25W, the solar panel is 50W. I’m hoping this controller can handle that. I haven’t sat down and figured out the math yet, the controller is 10amp circuits so I may have to install a separate control heavy duty relay somewhere in the system if the fan is more than that. I’m thinking it will be, just guessing though. I’ll know more once it gets here and I can dig through the specifications and wiring diagrams. I’m not the sharpest tool I’m the shed most days either so

I may have to ”phone a friend”
I’m hoping there will be enough left over to control a RainPoint auto watering system I have had laying around for a long time

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

Thank you !! Don’t know why I hadn’t considered that yet. BOSS laid down the law and said we will be moving to the lake place this coming up weekend so I’ve been trying to concentrate on cooling it down as fast as possible this week. I’m trying to get it so anything that goes in there will survive a day or two without me lol. For the time being I could run an extension cord out there and hook up some WiFi inkbird controllers I have laying around. I think they’d be close enough to grab our WiFi. May have to test that out soon. I have both temp and humidity in those models.
I definitely need to figure out something for humidity.
Here’s the inkbird DC temperature controller that I ordered. Another thing I shoulda paid more attention took too before I hit the order button lol.

I’ll look around for one that has both options and is DC, maybe later I could put an actual solar panel attached to a inverter to run a dehumidifier ?
That controller showed up today along with the auto vent control arm, DC water pump and the 40% 10’X12’ shade.
The fan is 25W, the solar panel is 50W. I’m hoping this controller can handle that. I haven’t sat down and figured out the math yet, the controller is 10amp circuits so I may have to install a separate control heavy duty relay somewhere in the system if the fan is more than that. I’m thinking it will be, just guessing though. I’ll know more once it gets here and I can dig through the specifications and wiring diagrams. I’m not the sharpest tool I’m the shed most days either so
View attachment 1472414View attachment 1472415
I may have to ”phone a friend”
I’m hoping there will be enough left over to control a rain sense auto watering system I have had laying around for a long time

Simple 4 circuit controller, I assume the sensor was included?.....and the 12v power is explanatory...then a 12vdc relay on the heat/cool sides to allow 115/120 vac to power your heating and cooling...why you didn't just buy the complete module I'm not sure....basically plug n play.

They even have a wifi model.

 

[Pigskin Fanboy]

Simple 4 circuit controller, I assume the sensor was included?.....and the 12v power is explanatory...then a 12vdc relay on the heat/cool sides to allow 115/120 vac to power your heating and cooling...why you didn't just buy the complete module I'm not sure....basically plug n play.
View attachment 1472453
They even have a wifi model.

The inkbird controller did come with a sensor for temperature. Do they have a WiFi model that’s runs on battery voltage ?
The fan is basically on/off only. Max CFM is supposed to be 3000, I think I technically need 300-400crm for the space.
I was trying to come up with a way to control the fan speed (if needed) and at the same time control it using temperature. The fan came in a plug and play kit but only on and off. As soon as the sun hits the solar panel it’s running.
I’ve got plenty of options if I was going to wire the building for AC but was hoping to keep it “off-grid” style. For now I can run an extension cord through a window right into the greenhouse and can use either inkbird WiFi controllers or AC infinity T6 or T4 systems. It should also be close enough to the house to pick up our WiFi.
I’ve seen some of these setups that you can put in a metal temperature switch ($6-$10 part) much like a household dryer has and it will turn off an on that way based on which switch temperature you buy. I saw one a few minutes ago in a video that was 85f and it would turn on. Looked easy enough to install on one side of the circuit, (+ or -) . They even have rheostat types I could customize the on control to various temperatures.
Eventually I’ll put in a 12v deep cycle TM battery and a charge controller. For now the water pump and fan will be the only DC components attached to the battery system. If I can branch a 5v system off of the battery or charge controller I’ll be able to put a security camera in place and probably the RainPoint controller.
I’m probably just over complicating it lol.

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

Do they have a WiFi model that’s runs on battery voltage ?

Ok...didn't pick up on that at first...no this model plugs into wall outlet for the 120vac and does an internal 12vdc flip for the sensor. but your wanting to go totally solar/12-24vdc......so, nevermind bro..carry on..

 

[Pigskin Fanboy]

Good evening everyone
We’ve got numerous aspects of this build going on simultaneously but this will specifically be about the power supply and ventilation situation.
Sorry in advance but this is gonna be a long post LOL.

The greenhouse build is coming together…. slowly but in the right direction, I think.
I’m still fighting with heat/ventilation issues but I’m making progress there as well. I went from inside temperatures around 120f to 93f, which basically matches our outside temperature at the hottest part of the day. I’ve got some more improvements in that area of the build that I’ll lay out here in a few. I want to get caught up on what has been done to this point and outline some of the mistakes I have made along the way.
Hopefully this might help others who may cross this bridge.
I purchased a solar powered Attic Ventilation fan thinking this would be my main source of air exchange. On the description it says it is capable of 3000CFM, around 10 times what the calculators say I need assuming my math was right ….
I’d blow the hot air out of the top of the greenhouse and pull in cooler air from the lower vents. This works very well for my grow room/tent setup but not so much an outside greenhouse LOL. I had to make several “adjustments” to get where I am now.

The first issue is, if even one little cloud partially blocks the sun, it slows this fan down to almost nothing. I originally thought I could just hook the fan directly to a 12vdc battery and control it with a speed controller and temp switch but that wouldn’t work either. I’m assuming the fan is some sort of brushless, PWM controlled motor because it will not run at all with a direct 12vdc hook up, and the fan is nowhere near 3000CFM even when running lol. I installed a 40% greenhouse shade over the roof and that helped a lot !

I then played around with the solar panel placement and got it working good for a longer period, but it’s just laying on top of the roof at the moment and I’ll have to come up with a plan for that.

Obviously even when I do get the exact placement and maximum sun exposure this is not going to work as a standalone system. One or two cloudy days and I’d have a bunch of dead plants, I’m sure !! So I decided to leave that fan installed, since I already cut the hole for it in the side of the Greenhouse

I got the bright idea that I’d install a true 12vdc cooling fan (Automotive) system attached to a deep cycle battery and use the solar panel(s) to charge the battery up as needed. Sounds great in theory but I’d have to come up with a way to control the new cooling fan or it would burn itself out in a week running at full speed.
I picked up a stand-alone solar battery Charging system with a charge controller, so now have 2 solar controllers to play with

I was able to pick up a set of 2 16” fans, relatively inexpensive but after about 30 minutes of running wide ass open the motor was getting hot to the touch, I didn’t measure the surface temperature but I’m sure not sure if it would last long that way. Now these fans could possibly move 3000CFM each !!!
Here it is in “Pusher” mode (reverse polarity on leads)

I then decided to run an extension cord out and power up an ACI T4 system and added in a large 12” oscillating fan and things seemed to “fall into place” and eureka I think I found the answer.

So throughout all this I decided my answer is going to be somewhere in the middle and will be installing a solar bank with an inverter system
The ultimate goal is to have 2-12vdc deep cycle batteries hooked in parallel as my main battery bank system. There’s going to be a solar panel system hooked up to a charge controller to keep my batteries topped off and protected from overcharging. The battery bank will be outside the greenhouse in a waterproof-vented container to prevent problems.
I’ll be running an intake and an exhaust fan one pulling and one pushing. I have both AC and DC options now so will be playing around to come up with the best configuration.
I have a 1000W inverter that I can use to run a few smaller 110VAC items. I’ll be working on a control panel for all of this and setting up that system tomorrow with one battery for now to test it out for a week or so.

With the charge controllers and the Inverter, I now have several 5vdc USB ports for various other things, like security camera, RainPoint watering system, LED lighting for night gardening and phone charging
Hopefully I’ll come to a happy medium soon cause we are on a tight schedule with an upcoming vacation and I don’t have time to slack off now. I’m keeping my teenagers very busy

Hopefully this covers all the aspects of the ventilation system and having some options to set timers and make adjustments with WiFi.
Oh yeah, here’s how I pay my teenage laborers, works every time !!