I'm sure you're going to want the opening windows, Ken. Kathy up in Mass. maybe doesn't have weather of the right temperatures as often as we do down here in the South.

Pretty sure Jim opens his big windows in the OC quite a lot except in our "cold" winter weather.

50F is cold for y'all.

Well, cold enough to close the windows anyway. Yeah, 50deg. nights. That's about when I start bringing my Vandas in to live in our bathroom for the "winter". We even occasionally get a day that doesn't break into the 60's in winter. I have to keep my window beside the desk here closed on those days, too.

I will never complain about 50-60F temperatures ever again. I just wish we had a longer (mild) fall before having to being everything in. It takes me so long to do so, I can't wait until the day before the temperatures drop below 55F to start that process.

My windows are open 95% of the time. Plus, I have 3 24 inch exhaust fans and 5 other fans blowing during the day all summer.

Jim

Since yours is open so much, with heat and humidity a constant factor, you need all that air-movement, Jim. My sunroom will have two sets of French doors leading into the house, so in reality, this large room will be an integral part of the house. Of course, my sunroom/Florida room will have its own AC/heat, so in reality, other than when my windows/doors are opened up, it is completely climate-controlled. We will have two ceiling fans though, to further move air.

The mini split sounds like a good idea. Can either of you tell me good brands. Can you take a photo, Elaine, so I can see exactly what they are. Right now I am planning on heating a 9x12' space but the peak will be 14.5'. Do you think this will be less than oil?

Kathy, I will have to ask my contractor. He sent me a link of the brand he wanted to use, and I looked at the link three months ago. I don't remember the brand but just remember that it was a well-known label. I will let you know. You will have to ask your "Northern" friends about the oil issue. I have never used oil in 72 years, other than to fry fish.

Kathy, I really can't tell you about the heating cost either, as we use it so seldom for heat. Just the odd chilly mornings in winter - it's very nice to turn it on and warm up the bedroom before I get out of bed.

I wonder if you'd have to run an electric heater in the greenhouse anyway, even if you did run heating ducts to the greenhouse from the main oil burner. It's possible you'd have to keep the whole house quite a lot warmer to keep the temp in the greenhouse up in the 50's. Might depend upon where the thermostat is.

If you keep the adjoining doors to the house open at night on cold nights, the house heat would augment the greenhouse heater or mini-split, as well.

I do know that our a/c cost is certainly lower when we run both the units at night in summer. The main house unit keeps the rest of the house at around 78 while our bedroom is cooler, usually around 72.

I'll take some pictures of our outdoor unit tomorrow. It is made by LG and has worked fine for 5 years, but we looked at one for our big shop and DH says if he buys another it will be a Mitsubishi. They are rated better. The outside unit is about 1/4 the size of a regular a/c compressor.

Here's the inside unit on the wall of our bedroom = 11in. tall, 36in. wide, and sticks out of the wall about 7in. The best part is there is no ducting at all and the installation takes one 2in. hole in the wall, plus a concrete pad for the outside unit. The front of this is not black, it is dark grey smoked glass.

You simply need to have a separate thermostat in the greenhouse. The oil burner/ forced air keeps the temperature perfectly up here in NJ. I set my greenhouse minimum temp to 60 degr and ramp it up during the day in Winter to 70 degr F, no problem!

Thanks, guys. I will ask around about this unit and see if people use them here. We can go a week straight with -30 F degrees with windchill and three foot snowstorms. Most people use pellet stoves for heating greenhouses but that would drive me nuts. And one slip and you have 500 frozen plants. I would just love it if someone would tell me what to do so I'm not spinning my wheels. Meanwhile no one has bought the house! I really appreciate all your help and thanks for letting me vent! Now back to Ken who will inspire me....

Ha, Ursula. I probably will do the same as you with a separate thermostat. So, I think I need a door to the outside (unfortunately taking prime space on the south wall), an exhaust fan, vents for air to be drawn out (that's what I meant by vents), a heating set up, an air conditioner (is yours a unit in a window? I can't remember where yours is located. Or is it central air) and poles (did you get it from Florian? How high is your greenhouse?). Too much coffee today!

Kathy, we have central air and the unit sits in the backyard. As mentioned, in retrospect we probably should have given the greenhouse a separate AC unit. But then, until now I have only used the AC in the greenhouse on those early occasional warm days in May and then again in September or very early October. And you are surely a couple degrees cooler that we are here in NJ.
Btw the space in front of the door is still packed with Orchids by Winter! It is not a lost space for me. I just place things in such a way that I can move them out of the way in minutes to reach the deck, say as for snow removal and such.

How high is the greenhouse? It is highest on the house wall. Have to go and measure. That stainless steel bar in the center came from the same place as the aluminum racks, a demolished chemical pilot plant.

I won't have a lot of slope on the roof part of this sunroom. It will attach to the existing roof which is about 9-10' high and then at the 32' vertical, glass wall, it will be approximately 7-8' tall. I still can't visualize how the glass connects with all the roof lines and that's why I have a contractor who has built numerous sunrooms onto existing homes.

Kathy, the reason my contractor wanted a separate AC/Heat unit is because he was afraid of a lot of temperature fluctuation inside the sunroom. It wasn't as if I did not have enough AC (two existing units with a rating of 4.5 tons), he just thought that I might want to keep the sunroom at a different temperature than the rest of the house. He has never installed Florian, so he is just going by his best guesstimate. This Florian glass is supposed to be top-of-the-line for insulation value. Ursula, who has had years of experience with her Florian greenhouse, would know just how well that glass inhibits the outside temperature (and sunlight) from altering the inside temperature. This is all a blank canvas for me. I will know a lot more in a few months.

Here are the pics of the outside unit of our mini-split. Pardon the mess, we had a very blustery rain storm in the middle of the night, and another around breakfast time so everything is dripping wet and I was not inclined to dive in there, needless to say.


What really appeals to me about this is the ability to control the temperature of one room - or your greenhouse - completely separately from the house temp and with just one small a/c and heating unit c/w a nice strong fan included.

Yep, that's what I will have, but don't remember the manufacturer.

So, my handyman called and we have a completely new plan-a string of skylights across the south facing roof and a few on the north roof and possibly French doors below on the south side. I am looking into getting them at a salvage place everyone uses here and getting a coating to put on them for UV protection. I would save a ton of money, I could open the windows, use an exhaust fan, and could use the entire 12x18' two floor space for the room up to 14.5 '. Most likely wouldn't need a permit so he could do the work. He has a heating license so he can set up the heat in it's own zone and I could pop in an air conditioner in one of the two existing windows. He would use a vapor barrier and insulate like mad. But I really need to create a dry basement for storage first. My basement leaks every rain storm but he has worked on jobs sealing wet basements and think this can be done.
What do you think? I might spend more on heat but if I can find super low-e windows.....
Most of all, I want all that space! I could start right away on the basement without disrupting my tenants. Then they might be able to empty their stuff from the garage into the basement and he could make the sunroom that they could use if they chose. I'd feel a lot less pressured about the orchid moving timing too.

Sounds like great plan, Kathy!

If it looks good to you, go for it, Kathy.