Friday, November 26, 2010

There is a Hole in the Roof

The weather cooperated enough today so that Burr was able to open the roof of the building that I am now referring to as "The Greenhouse."  He is putting a shed dormer into the second story for me so that we can have more storage space.  The south facing window should also give me a good area to start my seedlings as well.
Burr and Calvin spread a tarp over the roof just before it got dark.  It isn't calling for rain, but I would not be surprised if we didn't get some tonight.  They plan to work on it tomorrow and hopefully get everything closed in before it gets dark.

I spent time experimenting with the siphons for my growbeds.  At first I thought that I might need a larger drain pipe than the 1 inch that I am using.  I hooked up this contraption to my 1/3 horsepower sump pump so that whatever water I didn't want going to the growbed would be sent back to the tank.  I am using a valve to regulate the amount of water entering into the bed and  I found that it was very easy to find the right spot where the siphon turns on and turns off.  
I am experimenting with using two different bells on top of the siphon.  I found that the 2 inch bell sometimes has a problem stopping the siphon, so I added a snorkel (see photo above).  I also am experimenting with a 3 inch bell and it works well without a snorkel.  It is taking about 11 minutes for the tank to fill and about 4 for the tank to drain.  I am going to let it run all weekend and see how it performs.

3 Comments:

Blogger Rich said...

You're mighty brave, pop'n a hole in your roof, this time of the year!
We've already had a couple day's of low 20s freeze, how's your temps been?

November 27, 2010 at 8:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's all looking rather serious now! What a project and a half!

November 28, 2010 at 11:15 PM  
Blogger Jon Ezrine said...

Rich, Temperatures have been at a low just above freezing, but I turned the water off at night so there should be no problems until I put the furnace in.

DBE, Tell me about it! I need to find a finish before I keep expanding the scope.

Jon

December 2, 2010 at 10:34 AM  

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