New Green House Windows

[belovelife]

i wonder, would it be worth it to add a similar anti-reflective coating to greenhouse windows, to keep more light in the greenhouse,

( the anti-reflective coating that is applied to solar pannels is what i'm thinking of)

[Buffy]

Anti-reflective coating is a filter: it blocks light. It's not a matter of "keeping it in" it's more an issue of letting more in in the first place...

 

The truth of the matter is that window management under X is not yet well understood, :phones:

Buffy

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

i wonder, would it be worth it to add a similar anti-reflective coating to greenhouse windows, to keep more light in the greenhouse,

( the anti-reflective coating that is applied to solar pannels is what i'm thinking of)

No. Um...to "keep" more light in? I'm not sure there is anything that can trap light as visible light in a space.

Are you trying to trap in heat? Get more light inside?

 

You could strategically place mirrors to reflect otherwise wasted light from where it is not needed to where it is needed.

 

 

If it's heat retention you are wanting there are numerous tricks to capture and store heat, such as running black pipe filled with antifreeze where sunlight will strike it directly inside the greenhouse, connected to smaller lines running to coils of tubing under the soil of the plant beds using a small solar powered pump to circulate. The sun heats the pipes, the pipes heat the coolant, the pump circulates that under the soil warming it from underneath, the cooler coolant returns to the pipes to get reheated, the soil traps the heat which slowly rises through eventually into the air inside the green house. With a thermostat to trigger the pump on when the coolant is warm enough and off when too cool I've seen these setups keep plants above freezing through the winter. The best i've seen was a friend who had his composter in a shed attached to his greenhouse with a heat exchanger harvesting the warmth created by his compost tied in to add more heat and make up for lack of heat on cloudy days.

Edited December 5, 2012 by DFINITLYDISTRUBD

[belovelife]

more like more usable light staying inside the greenhouse, think about the level of a verticle farm skyscraper

 

the more light that gets used for photosynthesis the better, so maximizing the usable light is the goal,

 

i was thinking like a 2way mirror, where light gets in, but doesn't get out

but without the reflective nature of the mirror

 

say for instance this buildig material in midday, would appear black, but inside, would be like midday outside, plus ( reflectivity of light )

 

or mabe there is a room that collects light for each floor, and the intensity that is best for each plant is divided in that room and dispersed throught the facility with concave lenses or something

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Dang, that's what I thought you meant.

 

By placing mirrors on the floor, ceiling, and walls that won't block sunlight you could make it brighter inside but as far as I know there is no way to "trap" visible light as visible light...you could also add mirrored ledges outside that reflect up additional light that would not otherwise be directed inside so it is reflected from the ceiling down.

[Mountain]

Using reflective mylar on the back wall of the greenhouse helps to reflect light back to the plants, as long as your greenhouse is aligned properly to where the sunlight is not blocked by the mylar from getting in. There are many greenhouses utilizing this, in fact when I was looking up reflective mylar suppliers a number of them listed that as one of the common uses of the material.

[Turtle]

Ed Rosenthal of weed growing fame recommends white surface over mylar/foil as a greenhouse/grow-room reflector. Something about a more even reflection IIRC. I have a veggie garden facing South with a 6 ft board fence bounding it on the North, and I have in the past used inexpensive white roll-up shades and white tarps on the fence to reflect sunlight back into the garden.