Well, it is the modifying other things forum...
The theory's simple enough - get the hot air from the top back down to ground level and have it radiate back up. So here's what I started with:
One fairly standard-sized greenhouse:
And a heater blower pirated from one of many mk2 Golf GTIs which have passed through my hands:
The first step was making sure that the blower actually worked - cue hunting around for the wiring loom for it, the realisation that it was part of the entire dash loom and I was buggered if I was cutting that up as it's always handy to have a spare. Hunt re-started for some common or garden two-core double-insulated flex off some knackered household appliance. Hunt failed. Eventually found four bits of Golf tailgate loom about half the size they needed to be. A bit of bastardisation of some old multiplugs saw two bits of wire exactly the length they needed to be. A bit of playing around with sticking the wires in different holes all the while bridged across the one battery I have which I know to be good saw the fan working, spinning the right way and screeching like a good'un. Damn.
Nevermind...
A big screwdriver saw it apart, some WD40 freed it off a bit, and a whole pile of grease saw it quieter. Ish.
Safe in the knowledge that it would work for at least a day before being unbearably noisy again, I felt justified that I could cut up the ducting and start constructing some sort of contraption. So I did, leaving me with something that looks a bit like this:
Now came the fantastic, keep-fit, backbreaking and pouring-with-sweat-inducing digging a great big hole in the greenhouse floor on a very sunny day stage. So from this:
To this:
To this:
Took altogether too long, six pints of orange squash and about twelve wheelbarrow loads. But with the horrible back-breaking toil out of the way, the fun stuff could restart. The blower, the sewer pipe it was duct-taped onto and the flexible aerearated pipe attached to it could be placed in position. The bottom was lined with heavy insulated board-type stuff:
Our neighbour brought this down - it's a 45 gallon drum - none of that metric nonsense here, ta - just over half full with broken glass!
So we filled it up with that. I never routed the holed pipe along the bottom as I reasoned that this would mean the fan would have to work harder to push the air further, and also that the heat will radiate to an extent as well. We'll find out soon enough if I'm wrong I guess.
Now obviously all that air needs to escape somehow - and it was always the intention to cover it back up with soil. Again, our neighbour came to the rescue with a few lengths of inch and a half plastic pipe. I drilled a few half inch holes along their length and sunk them into the heatsink:
And then covered it all back up with the subsoil dug out of the hole given that we won't be planting anything there!
So there you have it. Just hope it works...
:lol: :lol: :lol:
The theory's simple enough - get the hot air from the top back down to ground level and have it radiate back up. So here's what I started with:
One fairly standard-sized greenhouse:
And a heater blower pirated from one of many mk2 Golf GTIs which have passed through my hands:
The first step was making sure that the blower actually worked - cue hunting around for the wiring loom for it, the realisation that it was part of the entire dash loom and I was buggered if I was cutting that up as it's always handy to have a spare. Hunt re-started for some common or garden two-core double-insulated flex off some knackered household appliance. Hunt failed. Eventually found four bits of Golf tailgate loom about half the size they needed to be. A bit of bastardisation of some old multiplugs saw two bits of wire exactly the length they needed to be. A bit of playing around with sticking the wires in different holes all the while bridged across the one battery I have which I know to be good saw the fan working, spinning the right way and screeching like a good'un. Damn.
Nevermind...
A big screwdriver saw it apart, some WD40 freed it off a bit, and a whole pile of grease saw it quieter. Ish.
Safe in the knowledge that it would work for at least a day before being unbearably noisy again, I felt justified that I could cut up the ducting and start constructing some sort of contraption. So I did, leaving me with something that looks a bit like this:
Now came the fantastic, keep-fit, backbreaking and pouring-with-sweat-inducing digging a great big hole in the greenhouse floor on a very sunny day stage. So from this:
To this:
To this:
Took altogether too long, six pints of orange squash and about twelve wheelbarrow loads. But with the horrible back-breaking toil out of the way, the fun stuff could restart. The blower, the sewer pipe it was duct-taped onto and the flexible aerearated pipe attached to it could be placed in position. The bottom was lined with heavy insulated board-type stuff:
Our neighbour brought this down - it's a 45 gallon drum - none of that metric nonsense here, ta - just over half full with broken glass!
So we filled it up with that. I never routed the holed pipe along the bottom as I reasoned that this would mean the fan would have to work harder to push the air further, and also that the heat will radiate to an extent as well. We'll find out soon enough if I'm wrong I guess.
Now obviously all that air needs to escape somehow - and it was always the intention to cover it back up with soil. Again, our neighbour came to the rescue with a few lengths of inch and a half plastic pipe. I drilled a few half inch holes along their length and sunk them into the heatsink:
And then covered it all back up with the subsoil dug out of the hole given that we won't be planting anything there!
So there you have it. Just hope it works...
:lol: :lol: :lol:
I killed me tomartss this year 
gave the slugs my only rosie greenie, need a greenhouse... 
