9 Tricks To Keep a Greenhouse Cool Without Electricity
You have a greenhouse. You sowed all your precious plants in it. Generally, it will generate a lot of heat during the summer. But still, you rely on your cooling system to keep your plants safe from burning out. Imagine today is a warm day and suddenly your electricity goes out, now what will you do?
As a gardener, worrying about your plants is very normal, mostly when the electricity isn’t there. But don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to keep a greenhouse cool without electricity. Let’s go and find out.
Keeping Greenhouse Cool in Summer Without Electricity
Water your Plants
The basic rule of gardening is to water your plants daily. When your plants’ roots absorb the water, they stay awake. At that moment the sunlight won’t be able to burn your plants out. Crops have the ability to keep themselves cool through the transpiration method. But without water, they can’t do that.
If you see your plants losing their moisture just by looking at the leaves, then quickly water your plants. The water will prevent the surface from overheating. Every time the temperature rises, the transpiration will happen faster, and your plants will need more water. So, make sure you water your plants regularly.
Shade Cloths
Shade cloths are made to block the warmth of the sun; this means the sunlight won’t be able to pass through the cloth. Simply insert a shade cloth over your greenhouse from the top. Once you do that, your plants will have the same feeling you had while standing under a shaded tree on a sunny day.
You will find different types of shade cloths. There are woven cloths, reflective clothes, and even knitted cloths. The woven cloths might get cut, and you will need tape to use on the edges. Knitted clothes won’t need tapes as they are far better than woven clothes.
On the other hand, the reflective material clothes are far better than all others. Once used on small greenhouses, they were able to control the temperature. Its shaded performance ran from 50% to 70%, which is a good number. So, make sure to use shade cloths before your plants get too hot.
Rolled up Side Curtains
If your greenhouse has straight sidewalls, then you can use rolled-up curtains. During the hotter days, you can roll the curtains to restrict the warmth from entering the greenhouse. These curtains can be used both manually or through automation.
Curtains are made of heavy fabric that can make you sweat as you set them up. I will recommend you to use a knee wall with this curtain system. This way, you will be able to protect your plants from heavy winds when the curtains stay open. Not just that, if you live in a snowy area, then the knee wall will help you to lay off the snow against the curtain.
Apply Roof Vents
Most of the greenhouses should have a built-in roof vent but unfortunately, some don’t have this attached. If you have built your own greenhouse, you must add a roof vent because there aren’t many replaceable items beside the roof vents. One of the useful venting ideas.
As you set up a roof vent in your greenhouse, it will allow the greenhouse to release all the hot air out. His will keep the environment much cooler. You can attach either an automated roof vent or a manual one. But to take advantage of these vents, do attach a solar-powered opener.
The solar-powered opener will open automatically when hot air rises. Once the hotness is out, the vents will close automatically. You can also control them yourself or adjust them manually.
Side Vents
To cool your greenhouse, you will need to cover it fully, which means you will need a side vent as well. Try to place the side vent with a solar-powered opener below the roof vent to get better ventilation.
Try to place them approximately 6′ from the bottom to the top of the greenhouse to implement the chimney effect.
Misting Process
The misting process is another great way to keep your greenhouse cool. You will need a pump to pressure the pipes that can be powered by solar-charged batteries. With this, it will work automatically. In terms of venting, this method will be more effective.
- Solar Powered Ventilation System
The solar-powered ventilation system operates on the same principle as a wired ventilation system. The exhaust fan in this system will go high in the greenhouse’s back wall, and the intake shutters will go down on the opposite wall. The exhaust fans stay wired to the thermostat.
The manual intake shutters will take in the fresh air into the greenhouse. The exhaust fan will take this air through the greenhouse converting it into cooling air without electricity. So, you see, using these simple instructions, you can create your own cooling power.
Dump your Greenhouse
Here, by dumping, I mean making your surface wet. Most of the time, the surface of the greenhouse stays hard. By cooling your surface, you will also be cooling its environment
As you pour water into the surface, the water will evaporate and raise humidity inside the greenhouse. Not just that, it will also take on pest control.
Oil Drums filled with water.
Oil drums filled with water tend to stay cold most of the time. If you fill in many oil drums and place them inside, they will help you keep the place cool. You won’t need any machines or tools and not even electricity.
If all the water drums stay together, they will create a cold environment all over the greenhouse lowering a few degrees of heat. So, you can try this out if you haven’t.
Conclusion:
The overheating issue can sometimes be a headache if not taken care of. There are plenty of solutions out there. Why go for expensive and unnatural ways of solving the issue when you can do it more naturally?
All you need is some fans, covers, shade cloths, or some oil drums to keep your greenhouse cool without the use of electricity. So, go on and try out these methods and see which one works for you.
