Rhino Greenhouse

After over 35 years of faithful service from my 8'x 6' Hall's greenhouse I have recently upgraded to a Rhino Premium 10' x 8' in beautiful Blue Grass set on a concrete base. With a milestone birthday this year, my lovely wife treated me to this at the end of the summer (2024) Delivered in early October, I built it with the aid of my dad over a weekend. The quality of this greenhouse is excellent and I'm looking forward to many great growing seasons ahead. Having the extra space is great. I've always insulated my greenhouse over the winter with bubble wrap and with my new greenhouse it was no exception,. However, I thought that I would double insulate so there's two layers of bubble wrap. Now, here's the question, I think my greenhouse is too well sealed as I now have a lot of condensation and all surfaces are damp, despite low level heat (currently) via a thermo tube heater keeping the frost off and a fan circulating the air. I will be introducing heat in the next few weeks (month) when I start to sow seeds which will be in two 4' x 2' soil warming cable sand beds which I lay seed trays onto to aid germination. Apart from opening the doors to let cold damp air in, is there anything else I can do to reduce the amount of condensation? I'm also conscious that with the levels of condensation, damping off might also be a problem. Thanks in advance.

 

You dont say what you have growing in the Rhino. Perhaps reduce watering.
Also, could it be the concrete base drying out ? Does the concrete have a membrane ?
An automatic louvre might also be available. Perhaps find out whether a humidity sensitive switch can operate the fan also.
Be cautious regarding electrical equipment installations if IP65 is a mystery to you.
IP Ratings Chart

 

Condensation in our cold damp climate is always a problem and ventilation is my way of dealing with it, but there is no point on those days when nothing dries up.
Here we have had lots of days where its not rained but the ground and paths are as wet at the end of the day as they are in early morning, basically its 100% humility that is pretty impossible to combat.

Adding heat can make the problem worse as the warm moist air in the greenhouse will just condense against the colder bubble wrap.

I can only think a dehumidifier might work if its becoming a problem, but mostly I just ventilate whenever I think there is a chance of it drying.

 

Thanks. Electrical installation is fully compliant with current regulations. I'm a compliance manager so wouldn't ever consider anything otherwise. Fan is running 24/7 but as Pete says, humidity is high all day both inside and outside. Basically plants inside at the moment are just over wintering with almost no additional watering. The Rhino greenhouse came with 4 auto vents which open 3/5 ths of the roof but only when it's warm enough. The 3 louvre vents are covered as are the roof vents with bubble wrap. I've just put a few trays of salt in the greenhouse to see if that helps and I'll dry it out every few days. If we get a few days where the weather is drier, I'll open the doors and let the fresh air in. Don't want to waste the air I've just heated up though.

 

What temperature are you running the heating at, I just run mine at two to three degrees C just to keep frost out, anything else is really expensive.

 

At the moment, I've got the thermo tube set for 7C which actually keeps the temperature around 3 - 4C depending on how cold it is outside.

 

I think condensation is just one of those problems most people have with greenhouses, until the weather warms up, and drier, you cant really do much.

 

I ventilate when I can ,, and keep watering to a strict minamum ..

 

Just beginning work in the greenhouse, strawberries that were in pots are now in the border soil as they were struggling in pots last year, I have plenty of room as I am not growing sweetcorn in the greenhouse this summer.