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Greenhouse construction begins


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  #21  
Old 11-07-2011, 07:41 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Just thought I would mention that the link I posted about the heater was probably a typo. After looking into it farther I haven't found any that were near 500 watts. It is most likely 1500 watts, and not 550 watts. Therefore would cost three times as much electricity to run. Also all the inferred heaters I found had the same space requirements (nothing spaced within 2-3 feet) regardless of output. I will continue to look into them, but don't hold much hope for electric heaters. If I can get one that has sufficient BTU's using only about 500 watts it would be cost effective, but not at much more watts than that.

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Old 11-07-2011, 11:39 AM
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That's a considerable difference. Looks like I am back to the drawing board also. I may just setting for an element or ceramic based heater that can just hold a constant.

We need to get this figured out.
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  #23  
Old 11-10-2011, 06:55 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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The last week has been filed with obstacles. I was able to finally get about all the "cull' wood I needed. But I have had regular weather problems with wind and rain every other day. As well as a issue with the rubberized coating I planed to use for laminating the plastic sheeting to the OSB not having good contact. I do have (come up with) another economical option, but wont post anything about it until I have tried/tested it and seen the results. But so far it looks promising.

I have pictures I have taken over the week, but they aren't downloaded to my computer yet, and it's 3:35 am now (and I still need to make dinner), so I don't feel like doing it right now. But will definitely post all the pics later. Just thought I would make a small update.

Also I have some consecrations for heating, but at this point I'm mostly back to looking at "propane" options. I can elaborate later on the options I'm looking at. But so far the small camping heaters still look like the best option. All the other options (even under $100) put out too many BTU's (30,000-50,000), not only wasting the propane, but even more importantly would likely damage my plants in such close quarters. Even if they were on timers and/or a thermostat, unless the heat could be dispersed differently.
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Old 11-13-2011, 03:48 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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OK, I finaly have the pictures downloaded to post. Now that the hydroponic system support structure is finished, I have been working on building the hydroponic systems. To do that I need to laminate a lot of wood with the 6ml plastic before I can put it together. In total I need to laminate 24-2x4's (8 foot), 60- 1/2 pieces of 2x4's (the cull wood) I'll cut them to size later, 12-3 feet by 8 feet sheets of OSB, and 9 more sheets of OSB (about one square yard each). As of tonight, all I still need to laminate is 36-1/2 pieces of 2x4's (the cull wood), and 6 of the small one square yard sheets of OSB. The rest is laminated. So most of the pictures are of the process of laminating the wood. I hope to be able to get the rest of the wood lamination done tomorrow (baring weather problems, and/or needing to run back out to Lowe's for more contact cement which is almost a certainty).

By the way, the alternative I came up with for laminating the plastic sheets to the OSB is working very well. I decided to use "vinyl tile adhesive" But you've got to be sure not to get the stuff for feltback vinyl tile, and get the stuff for vinyl composition tile (VCT). This is the exact stuff I'm using: HENRY 430, 4-Gallon Vinyl Tile Adhesive. It's very sticky with the consistency of something like a thick elmer's wood glue. I'm using the smallest notched trowel I could find for spreading/applying it to the OSB. Once it's applied to the OSB, I just roll out a pre-cut piece of the 6ml plastic sheet and just use a dry rag to push out any air bubbles for a clean/even lamination. It will take a good 24 hours for the tile adhesive to cure/dry, but I'll give it a minimum of 48 anyway. It does seem to want to make the OSB bend/bow as it drys, so I've placed them face down on the garage floor, and placed a lot of weight on top to press it down (the 5 gal buckets you see are full of water). I got 2 boxes of the 4 gal size of the adhesive ($27 ea), but in total I will probably only need about 6 gallons total to laminate all the OSB I need to.

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier or not, but I'm using contact cement for laminating the 2x4's. It's a simple process, but kind of boring. I first cut one foot wide pieces of the 6ml plastic from the 20 foot wide roll, then cut them into 10 foot long pieces (I pre-cut about 50 of them). To laminate them I just roll them out the table, wash them off with a wet rag and let dry. Then I roll on a coat of contact cement to one side of the 2x4's, and then to the plastic sheets. Wait 10 min, and apply the two sides together on the table. Then I apply contact cement to the rest of the surface of the 2x4's and wait another 10 min before rolling it over the plastic sheet and pressing it on using a dry rag as I go. To make the seem, once all the sides are done I apply a more contact cement to the bottom edge and cut the plastic edge so it overlaps the bottom edge, but the seem stays on the bottom edge and wont wrap around (sorry I forgot to take pictures of that part, but will try to remember later). When I construct the hydroponic system, that will be on the bottom edge and wont come in contact with water, so water cant get inside the seem.

In case anyone is wondering why I don't just use the contact cement on the OSB as well, there are two reasons. First it would simply be to expensive, the contact cement is $30 a gallon, and I would need about 8-9 gallons for the about 450 square feet of OSB I need to laminate (costing in excess of $250, verses the $60 for the vinyl tile adhesive). The second is it would take at least 3 people to apply the plastic to the OSB once they were coated. If it's not attached perfect the first time, I' screwed. Simply because you cant redo it (once it touches it's stuck), and for the same reason you cant just roll up the plastic sheet to roll over the OSB once you apply the contact cement, or it will stick to itself.

P.S.
Notice the borders I made to keep dirt from falling into the sub "T" system. I just used a flexible flower bed boarder, and screwed the end's together, placed them around the sub "T" system lids, and back-filled around it. I couldn't stake them down because of the high likelihood of the stakes going through the tubing. Also if my beard looks funny, it's because I tucked it inside my shirt so it wont get stuck to the contact cement.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 11-13-2011 at 04:28 AM.
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  #25  
Old 11-13-2011, 07:39 AM
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GPS that looks awesome. I had not idea you were constructing this, this way, perhaps I misunderstood you when we talked. This is pretty slick. Any idea on the longevity increase utilizing this method of coating/covering the wood?
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  #26  
Old 11-13-2011, 08:54 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I'm not sure what you mean by "longevity increase". But as far as constructing the hydro system, it's important to make sure you don't make holes in the plastic during constructing it. But as far as the overall projected longevity, I can tell you the 6ml plastic is construction plastic that is used in all parts of construction. Including being a moisture barrier and intended to last many decades. As far as the "contact cement" longevity, that to is intended to last decades, it's typically used for laminating counter tops and similar cabinetry. As far as the OSB longevity, it's the main wood used in house construction. As long as it's kept from moisture it will last a century or more, if not it can decay immediately if the wood is saturated.

Of coarse the vinyl tile adhesive is also intended to last for decades, being used to adhere tile to floors. The particular "VCT" adhesive is mostly used in commercial buildings, including hospitals. However the vinyl tile adhesive is only water resistant (not water proof). So that means it's water soluble and that you need to pay attention if you damage the 6ml plastic. But depending on how bad the damage is (pinhole, scratch, tear, etc) it can be simply patched various ways (silicone, hot glue, marine goop, etc.), and it would only be a problem if was below the water line in the system.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 11-13-2011 at 09:47 AM.
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  #27  
Old 11-14-2011, 01:17 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Well I took some more pictures today of how I'm laminating the 1/2-2x4's. Some of the pictures are redundant, being that they show the process of laminating the wood with the contact cement from the beginning, and I have already posted similar pictures. But heck, I may as well post them too because I have them. Though I mostly just wanted to show how I made the seems on the bottom edge I mentioned in an earlier post.

Basically once I've laminated all 4 sides, I fold back the overlap, and tape it back with electrical tape. Then I wash the dust off the bottom edge with a damp rag and let dry. Then I brush on a coat of contact cement to the bottom edge with a disposable foam brush, as well as the rest of where the plastic will overlap, and on the overlapping plastic itself. Then just fold the plastic back over and press it down firmly using a dry rag. Then I just cut off the excess overlapping plastic and press down the seem. I haven't bothered to clean off the excess contact cement from the bottom edge, I don't think it's any problem at all. But I already have a new bottle of "acetone" nail polish remover to do that with if I decide to later.

P.S.
You may notice on some of the shorter 2x4's, the plastic lamination dosen't go all the way to the end of the board. That's because the table I'm using has a 8 foot long work space, and some of the 1/2-2x4's are longer than 4 feet. So sometimes some of it hangs over the edge. But these boards will be cut to size later, and I will need to cut off anywhere from 8 inches, to a foot and half. So the couple of inches at the end that didn't get laminated in plastic will be cut off later anyway.
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  #28  
Old 11-15-2011, 05:24 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Just a little update on greenhouse heating options. Well first off I'm still skeptical on using electric heaters, but after running some numbers it may not be as bad as it seems if my numbers are correct. I was at Lowe's today looking into their propane heaters and after asking some questions (and reading the box), I was interested in a heater like this: Shop Mr. Heater Buddy Heater at Lowes.com. The particular one I was looking at was rated between 4,000 and 6,000 BTU's. The box also stated that it would run up to 110 hours on a 20 lb tank. Of coarse that would be on the low setting (4,000 BTU's), but doing the math and assuming a 20 lb tank refill would cost me $20, it would cost about $0.18 per hour to run ($20.00 divided by 110).

After looking online at some electric heaters for cost comparisons I found this one: Shop :USE 2-in-1 Convection and Radiant Heater at Lowes.com. It runs 1500 watts on high, and says it puts out a maximum 5,100 BTU's. Now to compare them I know we pay $0.09.29 cents per kilowatt hour, and using the Electricity Cost Calculator I compared running the electric heater for 110 hours. So 9.29 cents, and 1500 watts shows it would cost $15.33 to run it for the same 110 hours ($0.14 cents per hour).

Going by those figures the electric heater should cost less to run by 4 cents per hour. However I have always known gas and propane heaters to be more energy efficient. But of coarse there's always the variable of the fluctuating propane prices depending on where you get the tank refiled. Though on the other hand it's much easier to thermostatically control electric heaters than gas/propane heaters. Well, at least for a small scale greenhouse setup, rather than a household system anyway. And being able to adjust the heat, as well as how much fuel is burned is necessary in being energy efficient (cost effective). With that in mind, I think the key in being cost effective is really going to be being able to adjust the heat level as needed (fuel or electric). Also if using a electric heater I would suggest having a "Kill A Watt" meter to make sure you know how much it's costing to run for sure.
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  #29  
Old 12-02-2011, 02:16 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Well I thought it was time for an update. I've been so busy building the hydroponic system growing beds, that I just haven't had much time for anything else. There are more than 20 pictures, so I'll break the update up into two posts.

In total there are 21 grow beds, 12 of them are approximately 8x3 foot grow beds (large ones), and 9 more about half that size (small ones). After all the wood was laminated with the black plastic it was time to start constructing the grow beds. First I laid out the the laminated OSB face down on the table. Then I screwed in the laminated 2x4's around the sides. Once all the screws were pre-drilled and screws screwed in, I unscrewed 3 sides. That way I can keep all the holes lined up. Once I unscrewed the 3 sides I lifted the OSB and placed blocks to hold it up.

With the OSB up and out of the way, I hot glued the corners and ran a bead of 100% silicone along the inside seam between the OSB and 2x4's. Once I did one side, I screwed that side back down, and did the same for the other side, then screwed all the screws back in. Then I flipped the grow bed over and finished hot gluing all the corners from the top until the seems and gaps were all filled in. Then I continued to hot glue the outside seam all away around the grow bed, to stop any leaks that may get passed the inside silicone bead. Once all the hot gluing was done, I ran another bead of silicone around the inside edge of the grow bed.

I also finally took some pictures of the parts to my water filtration system. I have had them for weeks, but just took pictures of it today. There are 4 different replaceable cartridge filter housings. First will be a sediment filter, then the 1 micron filter, and then two carbon filters. The cartridge housings were $19 ea, the sediment filter was $9 (for a 2 pack), the carbon filters were $13 ea, and the 1 micron filter was $22. If you look closely at the 1 micron filter it shows it is a 0.5 micron filter. But with the allowable variance of .5 microns, it's really the same as a absolute 1 micron filter.
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  #30  
Old 12-02-2011, 03:31 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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As I promised this is part 2 of the update post.

Once I had all the grow beds built, I still had some finish work to do. Because all the 2x4's were laminated in black plastic, and because black absorbs heat as well as won't reflect light back to the plants, I wrapped the outside and top edges of all the grow beds with white duct tape. You'll notice on some of the small grow beds that there are still some black sides. Those are the edges that will be butted up against another grow bed, and wont be exposed to light or seen. Once I had all the sides wrapped in the white duct tape, I also had to paint the bottoms of the grow beds (OSB) with the white reflective roof coating. That not only gives it a waterproofs coating, but will reflect more light back down to the plants on the lower levels.

At the time I took the pictures in the garage this afternoon, I had all the 8 foot long grow beds ready. They are in two stacks of 6 in the garage. I also had 4 of the smaller grow beds done and stacked in the garage. The other stack of 4 I finished this afternoon, and took pictures of them drying tonight. I do still need to finish building the last of the small grow beds (the 9'th). I have the OSB laminated, it's under the 8 stacked 5 gal buckets, and the 2x4's in the back yard. I needed to finish building all the rest first because I was using the sheet of OSB I needed to cut it out of as a table top. I had planed to have that one finished by today also, but the rains changed that plan. In total, including all the, cutting, laminating, constructing, taping, waterproofing, as well as painting, I calculated that I spent over 90 hours of labor just constructing the grow beds alone. Overall much more time consuming than I thought it would be, but still well worth the effort.

P.S.
My nutrients came this week as well. It's the 25 lb quantity of JR Peters herb formula. It's a one part formula, and should make 3,200 gallons of full strength nutrient solution. Considering I will be growing small plants, and only be needing between 1/4 and 3/4 strength nutrient solution, the 25 lb's should last me between 4 and 6 months of full greenhouse production depending on how often I do nutrient changes.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 12-02-2011 at 06:04 AM.
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  #31  
Old 12-14-2011, 04:04 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Well time flys,
I've been busy, but not as busy as I would have liked to be. The weather is really setting me back right now. I had finished the grow beds last week (Wednesday-Thursday), but needed to get them installed by Friday to have enough time to install the greenhouse covering before the rains. That didn't happen because all my helpers had other obligations (one had a back injury). I did however get in touch with my neighbor and got five of them installed Saturday before time ran out and he had to get to other obligations. As usual everything seems to take longer than expected.

Anyhow now I have 5 grow beds installed now and no covering before the rain. So I went out and got some drop cloths to cover them (not pictured) from the rain. The rain shouldn't hurt them, but filled with rain water they will take many more hours of work to clean and dry out again before I could continue work on them.

For the inside of the grow beds I created a lip for the bluebord to rest on. I used a compost wood decking material that isn't made from wood. It's actually a waterproof plastic material that resembles wood for outdoor decks. I cut it into one inch blocks to create the inside lip. Then I created a jig to install them, that way they would all be at the same level/height, as well as straight.

Once I cut them all I pre-screwed in the screws to make installation easier. Once they were screwed in, I took them all out again. Why? Because the screw holes wouldn't be waterproof that way. But once I had everything in place and all the holes drilled, all I needed to do was dab a bit of marine goop on all the screw holes and screw them back in the same holes. I didn't use silicone there because it never would have cured properly in that application.

Right now I'm just waiting to install the rest of the grow beds, I need a 3 day window without any chance of rain to be comfortable in doing that. Not that they will take that long to install, but I want a two day window to be able to install the covering on the greenhouse (after installing the grow beds).

But in the meantime I have some other things I can work on. Like getting the greenhouse ready to cover with the poly covering, and all the Polypropylene Batten Tape cut to size and ready. As well as the different sections of the greenhouse covering cut to size and ready. Also the press I need to build to flatten the bottom of the pots that will be holding the plants (because they have rounded bottoms, and don't sit flat). Not to mention putting together the water filtration system.
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Old 12-20-2011, 02:33 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I just finished putting together my water filtration system yesterday. There are four filter housings. The first one contains the pre-sedimate filter, the next two two contain two activated charcoal filters, and the last one is a absolute one micron filter. At both ends of the water supply line I have installed quick connect fittings. The quick connect fittings will be attached to the hose as well. That will make it easy to quickly connect, and disconnect the water filter system inline with the water supply as needed with no hassles.
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Old 01-06-2012, 01:16 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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OK, I have had the greenhouse covering done for a few days now. Again there are to many pictures for one post so I will brake them up into two posts. First I cut the plastic sheet into 5 sections (4 sides, and the top). I made them bigger than needed and trimmed them down to the right size once it was completely attaches. I had to build a second wooden ladder for the side near the retaining wall because the other one was to large and wouldn't fit in-between.

I needed the sides to overlap, and the top to overlap all sides in order for it to be water proof. To do that I started installing the two ends first (the tall sides). wrapping it around the polls. Then I laid out the top section on one side, then duct tape 4 ropes to the edge. Then I just threw the ropes over the top and pulled it up from the other side (doing it evenly). I had already drew a center line down the center of the plastic sheet, that way it would be easy to line it straight down the center of the greenhouse. From there it was just mater of pulling it tight and screwing it in as I went down.

You can see the poly strapping I used in most of the pictures. That does two things, first it makes it so the screws wont just pull through the plastic making holes, and it adds extra strength for the plastic covering all the way around. Also it's important to pull the poly strapping tight as well as the plastic.

When installing the top section, I didn't attach the bottom edge yet because I need it to overlap the long sides as well as the short sides. If I did the sides first, there would have been no way for me to get to the top apex of the greenhouse to screw it in. In the center I built a platform that I could stand on that I can move around. But I also needed to stand right on top of the grow beds, so I just laid a bunch of 2x4's across there so I wouldn't do any damage to the grow beds. Doing the top that way was slow going (moving everything around to get where I needed), but I didn't have a choice because real tall free standing ladders are quite expensive (that's also why I built the wood ladders).

Continued in next post.............
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Old 01-06-2012, 01:47 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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As mentioned this is a continuation of my last post because there were too many pictures for one post...

Once the top section was attached enough so I could reach the rest with the 8 foot ladder, it was time to attach the long sides. I attached it to the 2nd horizontal runner from the ground on the top "A" frame section. And again pulled it tight. Then I overlapped the top section to the last horizontal runner down. Then I attached all the rest of the poly strapping, and cut the excess plastic covering off.

For the doorway I attached the poly strapping all around the door frame before cutting it out so it would remain tight. The poly strapping is 2-1/2 inches wide, so I lined it up so I can fold the same piece around the edge of the 2x4 door frame. Then I cut the doorway plastic out, folded the excess strapping around the edge and screwed that in as well. Then again just trimmed off the rest of the excess plastic greenhouse film. I already have the door built, but not installed yet (you can see the beginning of it in the first picture). It's a very solid door, that I not only screwed the heck out of, but I also glued the heck out of it with liquid nails. I'm just waiting a few days for the liquid nails to cure properly before I paint it white too. Then I'll attach the greenhouse film to it the same way I did the doorway before hanging it. Now I'm working on pluming all the grow beds to the reservoirs.
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Old 01-23-2012, 11:24 AM
fintuckyfarms fintuckyfarms is offline
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Looks awesome, just wondering if you have that water filter up and going yet and if there is anything you would have done differently?
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  #36  
Old 01-23-2012, 12:25 PM
T'Mater T'Mater is offline
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Looks good man, have you tested your water filter system to see what your getting as an end result?
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  #37  
Old 01-24-2012, 04:03 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I had defiantly expected to have the hydro systems running by now. But due to many issues, I need about $500-$600 more to finish everything and have plants growing. I still need to finish the pluming, order the pots, install the electrical, as well as the ventilation fans. I have a check coming in a week or so that will be enough for the rest of what I need to finish the pluming, so hopefully I will have the hydro systems running and tested in a couple weeks.

The water filtration system is ready to run, but I haven't ran water through it yet. Simply because the plan is to get the pluming finished first, get the reservoirs cleaned out and refiled with water from the filtration system in order to test the system for leaks, and make sure it's all flowing (flooding and draining) correctly before adding the nutrients and plants. I thought about just running water through the filtration system for the fun of it, but we have been having nights that were getting into the mid 30's and I didn't want to risk it freezing and cracking the filter housings, filters, or PVC tubing with it just sitting outside for now.

I cant think of anything that I would really have done differently, unless money wasn't an issue. In that case I would have went with the see through cartridge housings for the seatmate filters. But they run just about twice the price just to be able to see when the cartridge is getting dirty ($30+ for the see through verse $18 for the regular housings). I'll just take the cartridge out to look at it, but I plan on replacing it about every 2 weeks to a month anyhow (they only run $10 for two of them). I also probably would either double up the single one micron filter (running parallel), or went with the large carriage and housing (commercial size) to allow a faster water flow rate for that filter. I think that filter is a 1-1/2 or 2 gallon a minute flow rate (I forget now), and is the lowest of them all. Also if money wasn't an issue I would also add a couple filter housings for the ion exchange filter/s. I will probably add those later anyway, or just take out one of the carbon filters and replace it with a carbon/ion exchange filter (something like this as an example GAC KDF Filter, 6-stage Water Filtration Cartridge). Originally I had planed to use carbon/ion filter cartridges anyway, I just haven't seen any here in town.

I do plan on getting a ppm meter someday just to see how the filters affect the ppm. But ppm alone isn't a good test, it would only tell me the before and after readings. Not what the water had in it to begin with, and what is still left in it after. Which is what I actually want to know. I'll go to the water company to find out what and how much of everything that is in our source water there generally is. From that I may change (or add) a couple of the filters for specific minerals that are in high concentrations in our source water. The ion exchange filters aren't exactly cheep (and I'll likely need to order those online), so I would want them to be able to take out the specific minerals I need them to. But money is an issue (at least at first), so I'll do any upgrades later.

I finished the greenhouse door a while a go, and also started the pluming. I still need to take some updated pictures of the pluming I've done so far, but I'll post the pictures I have now. Well because I had so many pictures, and sense I need to make another post for the pluming pictures anyway, I'll wait until I take the updated pictures of the pluming for that post. I'll try to remember to take those tomorrow.

You can see in the pictures that not only did I use tons of screws, but I also glued the whole thing together with liquid nails. I glued each seem and board. I cut the sections so they fit tightly together, and I used a square to make sure I had square corners. I attached the plastic covering to the door the same way I did to the door frame. The only problem I had was that the doorway wasn't plumed before I built the door. I knew I would need to shim it, but wasn't expecting to need to shim it in two directions at the same time. The top two hinges needed to be both pulled out, and tapered inward. So I cut two pieces of leftover OSB to the right shapes, glued them together to make a large shim that fixed both problems. Then I screwed it into the doorway frame to create a plum doorway to attach the hinges to. It looks a little odd, but it hangs as well as opens and closes perfectly.

I wasn't going to make a doorway threshold. I was just going to pack the dirt up until it was almost flush with the bottom of the door. But my mom brought up the fact that the rabbits could dig under it, so I created the wood threshold so they couldn't get under it. It would only take one rabbit to get in and hop on top of the bottom grow beds to destroy 2 weeks worth of income, so the extra effort's was easily worth the piece of mind to me.
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  #38  
Old 01-26-2012, 02:45 PM
T'Mater T'Mater is offline
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you might ask the water company the loss rate of chemical's per mile or so. And i don't know if your talking about where you pay your water bill or the water treatment plant. I would attempt to go to the water treatment plant. They should actually be able to run test on your tap water. Back in the day when i worked i worked for the Water Distribution Dept. I was the city worker's that fixed main break's and sewer repair's. My dad was the supervisor in charge of the Waste Treatment plant.
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  #39  
Old 01-29-2012, 07:03 PM
Pineywoods Pineywoods is offline
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I'm looking forward to seeing your set up up and running. I'm really interested in the Sub-T system and how it works
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  #40  
Old 02-19-2012, 02:04 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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OK well it's been a long time since the last update. I'm not done with pluming the systems yet, but got enough done to give an idea of how it will look. With the exception of the tubing that is below ground everything is just dry fitted together so far. that way if I need to make changes, I wont be wasting materials.

The two reservoirs behind the greenhouse will be feeding the top two levels of growing beds. There are three 1-1/2 inch PVC tubes for each of those two reservoirs. One of them is for the fill line from the pump, the other two are return lines from the overflow. The 1-1/2 inch tubing continues all the way up for the overflow lines, and the fill lines split into two 3/4 inch lines just below the bottom level, then go up to the top levels from there. The fill line tubes are again reduced to 1/2 inch tubing at each of the "T" connectors going to the grow beds.

The bottom level will use the same 1-1/2 inch tubing for the return line, but with only one return tube back to the reservoir. The fill line for the bottom level will all be 1/2 inch tubing. I still need to cut the holes for both the fill and overflow fittings for all the grow beds. I needed to get the lines in place before I cut the holes for the fittings, so I could mark the exact spots where they will be cut. Once I have everything in place I'll begin gluing all the lines, connectors and fittings in.

P.S.
Again I have more pictures than I can put in one post, so I'll post the rest in the next post.

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