Good questions,
The black barrels are by my work and there only $5 a piece. I figure i was paying $10 and $20 for these barrels so why not put them out for $10 and and make enough to buy twice as many barrels or more. This green house is only 25ft long but when were done it will be 85ft so i can use lots of barrels.
Also i was thinking since i was coming up with a issue finding chep tanks to grow fish in that i might be able to use the black barrels and lay them on there sides and build a steel rack to hold them . stack them up with slots cut in the barrel to service them.
I have read that what makes a green house the most consistant in temps for day and night is the addition in the north wall of at least 1000 gallons of water. stores heat during the day and releases it in the night. it just happens that that i was needing about twice that amount of water for my full production of fish. The fish water needs to be a good 70 plus F. kinda cool the fish and plants want the same temp and light cycles.
Plastic sheeting,
I'm mostly going by what i have read on the sheeting. its used commercially all over my area so i have had a chance to take a look at several buildings with it. they sell it in different mills thick and it can and has different coatings like glass. from what i have read the last 10 years has brought quite a change to what is availble. So far what i think is a standard is every mill thick you buy you get about 1 year of life. But to get this you have to install it correctly and make sure it stays installed tight so it can not flap in the wind. Also doing two layers helps it last even longer as you will change the outside layer twice before the inside layer just from the little protection you get from the top layer sheilding the bottom layer from UV and temps.
My plan is to follow the commercial guys more than the hobby guys on the plastic. my green house plan is to build completly covered in two layers of plastic 6mil or 9 mil. There are products called wiggle wire that attch your plastic to the green house but its very expensive. I was going to install 1" x 4" wood boards around the green house every 5' from the floor over the roof to the floor again. then put the two layers of plastic on and use another 1" x 4" board over the top of the first and snadwhich the plastic in between (sheet rock screws to hold the boards together)
Then at each board or seam you install a hose that looks just like a dryer vent hose from one side of the board to the other so that air can travel around the board or seam. then there is a fan installed on the outside of the grren house the pressurizes the two layers of plastic. this causes them to slightly ballooon out and in as well. This stops all of the flapping a green house plastic does that causes the plastic to fail early.
It offer a thermo pane for heat retention as well as it is used for snow and ice control in mostly unheated green houses. They inflat and deflat the plastic to help sheet the snow off and since the air blowing in between the sheets is out side air it stops the formation of dew droplets in the green house and in the snow control it lets them drop the top plastic that has cool air flowing on it and let it set on the bottom layer that is warmer from the green hosue effect and help melt the snow or ice. I dont expect in my area to have snow or ice issues but thats what i know about it so far.
So they tell me i'll get at least 6 or 7 years of plastic life and then at that point thats just the top layer. plus they say when you take it off its still in good shape its just not letting light through it as well as you wnat so it will do a season over crops planted in rows outside if you like. (trying to get every pennies worth for farmers). Imagine if it were a comrecial operation you will find 100 or 150 ft to be about as small agreen house as the start with so you would have large amounts of plastic around. they try and sell the idea to build the chicken coupes, cover the tractors etc. all good ideas
As far as it lasting a long time. I'm not sure i would have issue if it lasted half that time its so very cheap to buy and changing it should be easy. its $2 $3 a foot around here in the size i will be using. I think i'll only have $200 in plastic for the whole job.
I guy walking by this weekend asked what i was building while we were welding. I said a bomb shelter and he knotted his head like looks good, good idea. wonder how long it will take him to realize a plastic covered bomb shelter may not be the best design idea?
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