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Monday 23rd 37F/3C [06.30] Overcast with precipitation. The thaw is going slowly. There are a few dark patches on the snow where I have wandered. The parking area is still snow covered. A reasonably comfortable 66F/19C in the room.
Up at 5.50. I was already awake when the recycling lorry lit up the room with its flashing orange lights at 5.30. I am not sure how he turned around on the tight area with snow piled so high. I saw the flashing later on the parallel drives on the back field. So he must have been making good progress. It's a lot of effort for so very few bins. With four houses empty. As they only pretend to repair them for years on end. That's 50% of the properties uninhabited in our tiny hamlet!
8.15 The stove is lit. I have brought in more logs and cleared snow from the area in front of the entrance door. I found the snow scraper and shovel. They were lost under a snow drift on the western lawn. Where I had hastily piled the stuff from the ground floor of the observatory prior to hasty demolition. Then the arrival of the workers to produce a practical parking area. Instead of a mud bath. Where tradesmen's vans got stuck! Which compaction and grave spreading work had run into weeks. Rather than the promised couple of days.
I am looking at ways to increase solar gain in winter, spring & autumn. Using the lean-to greenhouse for passive, solar gain. In conjunction with the south facing house wall. The energy you don't need to produce. To overcome heat loss, costs nothing.
Passive solar gain is free energy. Provided the existing conditions and structure allow. Without added extra expense. I built the greenhouse from two units decades ago. It is 22' wide x 8' deep and covers most of the southern facade. Only one kitchen window a short section of exterior wall is exposed to the elements.
This was always the plan for the greenhouse. Sadly momentum was lost along the way. The front hedge was allowed to grow foolishly high. Simply to protect ourselves from the neighbours. Who would shoot pellets at the greenhouse with an air rifle. We used to collect the pellets from the greenhouse gutter as evidence. Should it ever be needed.
Since my wife died I have lowered and thinned the south facing, beech, front hedge. The nuisance neighbours are long gone. The row of towering conifers has also been felled or drastically trimmed. More could easily be done with very little effort.
The problem with living so far north, at 55º, means that sun is very low in winter. I seem to remember it being at only 10-11º altitude above the horizon at noon. Which means that the greenhouse is usually shielded from the low, but still desirable winter sun, by the front hedge. The same hedge which provides some shelter from the wind. This hedge lies 3.5m from the glass front wall of the greenhouse. It's height sets the degree of incidence angle of the sun trying to reach the greenhouse floor. Or its back [house] wall.
I deliberately laid house bricks as a floor in the greenhouse To store the sun's heat. Yet this heat sink has never felt the sun's winter warmth. Not until the sun's altitude was high later in the year and largely unwanted. Which meant multiple layers of commercial greenhouse, shade netting. Just to block the summer sun. To avoid temperatures in the greenhouse soaring to well over 100F! This shade netting is not ideal. It blocks light to the living room through the three, south facing windows.
The southern wall is 9" [?] solid brick. So could well be used as heat storage. For passive heat transfer indoors. With the usual automatic and highly desirable, time lag. [See Trombe wall.] Provided the wall was exposed in winter but protected from the sun in summer. A coat of dark paint aids winter heat absorption but needs protection from the sun in summer. Blinds or shutters are required. Or white, lightweight tarpaulins can be hung or even drawn like curtains across the back wall.
This lightweight tarpaulin material is fairly innocuous cosmetically but ideal as an inexpensive sun blocker. It is thermally neutral. Meaning its surface doesn't get hot when exposed to the sun. It's downside is its sensitivity to UV degradation. However, it is amazingly cheap and readily available. Being used inside the greenhouse protects it from the wind. So it doesn't suffer from repetitive fluttering, stretching or mechanical stress. It is light enough to be easily hung from the greenhouse's own structure. Taking only moments to hang from hooks via the eyelets. The material is easily cut with scissors when needed.
We used it repeatedly for years on the ceiling of the greenhouse until it fell apart. To be endlessly replaced. It didn't work all that well. Because the sun's heat was already through the glass. The sunlight and heat needs to be blocked before it reaches the glass. Which means an external sun blocker needs to be weather and wind proof. Suitable, lightweight, solid materials for louvers and blinds are expensive and difficult to apply to an existing greenhouse. Since they really ought to be adjustable. To allow light blocking or free entry. Depending on the season and solar altitude. This is surprisingly difficult to achieve on a DIY basis. I have been thinking about it might be done for years.
The hoped for thermal storage of the 1500 liter fishpond. Has contributed almost nothing to the greenhouse. The temperature of the water lagged only slightly behind the overall trend in the greenhouse's air temperaure. The fish became torpid as the water temperature fell below 50F/10C. At which point I stopped feeding them. As advised by Gargle. It is currently 41F in the pond.
9.30 Time for a walk.
10.00 Back from my walk. The drive is now about 40% watery ice and slush. The gravel feels soft underfoot. Which is typical of a thaw after a frost. It is more manageable to walk on. With a lower risk of slipping. The roads are damp but clear. The fields are much more patchy. As the snow is clearing.
On my return I dragged the empty recycling bin back to the house. Then reversed the Morris Minor back down the drive into the carport. After which I brought more logs indoors. They have surface wetness now. So need to dry out indoors near the stove. To avoid introducing water directly into the stove.
13.30 Lunch over. It is raining steadily. Which will help to clear more of the remaining snow. The dark patches on the gravel parking area are steadily expanding.
14.30 41F/5C! It all helps.
Dinner was cheese on toast with tomatoes.
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