Supplying additional light for my gh in winter- with the sun's help

[Plantinyum]

So i got this idea recently, here's what i want to do. Winter sun here is guite low on the horizon so it does not make a great impact on the greenhouse as it is. I would like to harness as much of its power as possible, via the most cost effective way if possible.
So i want to make a form out of two flat wooden or other type of matterial boards, which will be meeting at the center, forming an angle of dunno how much degrees.  Basically i see the form being kinda as an open book, with the opened side towards the sun. If its totally flat and staright linded i will probably loose alot of the reflected light due to the sun's changing traectory, to fix this a bit i think that if i have the 2 boards both facing towards the greenhouse's center i will get the reflections right and lose a minimal ammount of them. The whole thing will have to be with a tilt towards the ground at its top so it could direct the light down towards the gh.
I want to use cooking aluminium foil as the reflective agent, i will have to glue it or just find a way to fix it to the material.
As a reflective a could also use the reflecrive thing that people use in their cars, i am not fammiliar with car part's names so i could not be more specific on this.
 As another alternative i could probably paint the boards white and not use reflective matterial, but i think the effect will be much weaker, if done like this.

Heres a sketch that i did for a few minutes, i hope the idea is clear enough with my shitty explenation.
Please share your ideas and thoughts on this thanks !

The second pic is better!

[Daintree]

I have tried something similar, and what works better than foil, and is way cheaper if you can get them, are the mylar "emergency blankets".  They are tough, large, very reflective, and usually easy to find. I mounted mine on the inside of the north wall of my greenhouse.  Worked well until some vines grew up and blocked the light from the mylar.

Carolyn

[Plantinyum]

I ordered 3 of those, they are from another brand since i coudnt find the myller brand ones.
My thing will be suspended above the gh and will be able to catch the suns rays trought the day i will just have to find the right angle of the two pieces. I dont want to put it on the wall of the gh since the shady side is like 50 cm from the house's wall, which i believe provides some warmth.
Now i gust have to find a light enouth material as the base, wooden boards which i thought of in the first place will be too heavy and hard to assemble, maybe i'll use plexiglass ....

[Daintree]

Be careful that you don't wind up building a giant sail that blows away in the wind...

Carolyn

[Jaboticaba45]

I need to look into this.
Built the greenhouse with full sun in summer but in winter it's in shade after 1-3pm
I could mount it on a tree and shine it downwards to the gh.
Such a good idea! I don't really need more light, but with light comes heat.

[Plantinyum]

Be careful that you don't wind up building a giant sail that blows away in the wind...

Carolyn

Yes i think it will be better and easier to do it right below the eave of the roof, plenty of ways available to suspend it at this place.
There will also be much less wind pressure there.

I need to look into this.
Built the greenhouse with full sun in summer but in winter it's in shade after 1-3pm
I could mount it on a tree and shine it downwards to the gh.
Such a good idea! I don't really need more light, but with light comes heat.

Well if you get more heat from it then the light will also be needed since the plants may be growing at a slow rate trought the winter, most of mine were growing trought last winter .
The sun here at the depth of winter is verry low on the horizon, there are a few not verry tall houses right infront its traectory, the greenhouse gets shaded by them at times trought the day, but two meters above the gh / at the roof its awlays sunny, thats why i want to try to harness this light and warmth that just goes into perish otherwise. In theory it should work....

[Jaboticaba45]

Be careful that you don't wind up building a giant sail that blows away in the wind...

Carolyn

Yes i think it will be better and easier to do it right below the eave of the roof, plenty of ways available to suspend it at this place.
There will also be much less wind pressure there.

I need to look into this.
Built the greenhouse with full sun in summer but in winter it's in shade after 1-3pm
I could mount it on a tree and shine it downwards to the gh.
Such a good idea! I don't really need more light, but with light comes heat.

Well if you get more heat from it then the light will also be needed since the plants may be growing at a slow rate trought the winter, most of mine were growing trought last winter .
The sun here at the depth of winter is verry low on the horizon, there are a few not verry tall houses right infront its traectory, the greenhouse gets shaded by them at times trought the day, but two meters above the gh / at the roof its awlays sunny, thats why i want to try to harness this light and warmth that just goes into perish otherwise. In theory it should work....

A lot of plants don’t grow or just slow down
And it’s fine
Cause like mango and lychee need to flower
And others just grow slower but it’s totoally ok to take a pause
Also to grow they need heat
But I can’t afford to keep my greenhouse at 50-55
That’s way to overkill
My minimum is 40 degrees and that makes it zone 11 lol

[pagnr]

Plants in pots can be put higher up on benches. This will keep them in light for longer, out of shady sides or corners.
Also light from below will hit underside of leaves.
There is some use of white or reflective floor covers to bounce light up to leaves.
Some plastic greenhouse films are better at dispersing light, i.e. changing the path to more evenly use light throughout.

[Mark in Texas]

Not practical and the "benefit' will be moot.

You'd be better off biting the energy bullet and installing high output LED's on a timer. 

Years ago I had a greenhouse with the back wall on the south, was a garage wall.  Painted it with a white latex for its reflective properties.  Flowered the hell outta of orchids.

[spaugh]

I ran some LED grow lamps on some herbs and pineapples in the GH during winter. Yeah they suck a lot of power but it does what you need it to do.  The herbs come out way better during winter in the GH than it does during the summer here where its too hot. 

[Plantinyum]

  I know lamps will be the best way to go, but i'm not willing to invest into this yet, my idea is to use the suns energy and light and find a way to capture and direct as much of it as possible.

I dont have much plants in pots anymore,  most of them will be going into the house for winter. I dont have any shelves or neither do i have the space to make them, the inground plants are getting big and i rather keep only them inside the gh. One other thing is ,the temp may go down to 2- 5 C sometimes so this will keep the soil of the pots too which will kill some plants depending on the species....

Well i dont know ive ordered the reflective jackets or whatever and will try , its still early so i will be doing this around the end of september probably, were still bright and warm here....

[Plantinyum]

So a year later, my idea has finally came to life.  I decided to do it with the upper suggested emergency blankets,  3 of those, sandwiched between 1 layer each side of strong nylon.
The 3 layers are then weaven together at several places. The sheet is then fixed to 4 m long metal rods. The whole thing is 2m by 4m. The way i mounted it, at least for now, seems very sturdy, we havent had a very strong wind for now, so I'm interested when that happens, how will the sheet respong. I weaved the layers with a very strong sewing thread, about 25 sm apart lenghwise, so it should hold up well for a while.
I cant tell if the angle is correct, compared to the sun, but thats what i could do, whiwe using the full size of the sheet.
I definitely can tell that it does reflect quite some light on the shady side of the greenhouse, the base of the greenhouse has warmed up, like it does when directly lit by the sun, just not as warm. The tiles also look quite brighter ,compared to before.
On the inside, the sun facing part is considerably brighter, but again, the shady part that faces the house got much brighter, compared to before.
Anyway, i dont know if this will be much of a benefit, but anyway, it has been done and i will monitor how the plants behave from now on.
The dragon fruits, which face the shady side, are in bud wright now ,should benefit from any additional light.

[fruitnut1944]

That's nice I like it..!! No sure how much it will help but can't hurt.

I recently insulated the north end of my greenhouse with white colored insulation. It will make me smile come winter.

I also replaced the Solarig with Palring. Both double layer inflated. Light inside went from less than 50% of outside to about 60%. I love it.

[Plantinyum]

That's nice I like it..!! No sure how much it will help but can't hurt.

I recently insulated the north end of my greenhouse with white colored insulation. It will make me smile come winter.

I also replaced the Solarig with Palring. Both double layer inflated. Light inside went from less than 50% of outside to about 60%. I love it.

In order for me to know how much light i gain with this is to have a lightmeter and make some measurements, i may get one one day, but it wont be before i get my sweet meter/ refractometer.
I will also be doing a greenhouse renovation, but i left it for next spring and summer.
Its cool uve found those materials that work for you, i think you suggested them to me in another tread, i am the stubborn policarbonate fan haha..

[drymifolia]

In order for me to know how much light i gain with this is to have a lightmeter and make some measurements, i may get one one day,

If you have a smartphone, especially Android, it almost certainly has a built in light meter to enable adaptive screen brightness. That sensor can be revealed with various apps, my favorite for it is the GPS Status and Tools app, which I have the "Pro" version of. It looks like this (I removed my GPS coordinates, the light level shown is under an indoor ceiling light):


I don't know how accurate it is, but based on the full direct sun reading, it seems pretty good.

[Plantinyum]

In order for me to know how much light i gain with this is to have a lightmeter and make some measurements, i may get one one day,

If you have a smartphone, especially Android, it almost certainly has a built in light meter to enable adaptive screen brightness. That sensor can be revealed with various apps, my favorite for it is the GPS Status and Tools app, which I have the "Pro" version of. It looks like this (I removed my GPS coordinates, the light level shown is under an indoor ceiling light):


I don't know how accurate it is, but based on the full direct sun reading, it seems pretty good.

Nice one! I have to check that out.

[foresight]

I've found that the phone-based lux meters aren't particularly accurate; you can get a dedicated lux meter on Amazon for $10-15.

You may want to plug your latitude into a "solar panel tilt angle" calculator to help determine your ideal reflector angles. Unfortunately, I don't think you will be able to greatly increase light levels without using a more complicated system of reflectors (similar to sun tunnels). With that said, I suspect your current solution could be quite helpful in reflecting light onto any understory plants that are getting blocked by larger plants.