Securing the building envelope
Halfway through the summer and we're well on our way to upgrading the greenhouse to year-round growing capabilities!
Monica Strimbold and the staff at Caledonia have been working hard giving the structure a blanket of insulation, starting with the walls to keep heat contained.
The floors also got outfitted with a layer of insulation to complete the building envelope.
Insulation is important because it creates a barrier between the inside and outside air that inhibits heat from moving from one place to the other. Typically heat moves in two ways - conduction and convection, also known as contact and air movement. Wood allows heat to move through it pretty easily because it is dense which means its molecules are all close to each other and make it easy to transfer energy. Insulation is much less dense, which means there is much more space between it's particles that make it difficult to transfer heat.
Think of standing right beside your friend and having to pass a hot chocolate - easy right? Now imagine your friend is 10 feet away it's going to be a lot harder to give them that nice warm cup. In fact you might have to toss 5 or 10 cups to get the just one to them. Heat transfer works essentially the same way. Think of the hot chocolate as heat, you are the warm inside, and your friend is the cold outside. The better the insulation the farther apart you are, and the harder it is for you to give them your hot chocolate.
The insulation creates a barrier between the cold wood and the warm inside air. Without it, the warm inside air would touch the cold wood and cool down much quicker, leaving the building at the same temperature as the outside air and making it much more difficult for plants to survive. Its the same as a thin sheet vs a thick duvet on your bed. The duvet contains your body heat and separates you from the cold winter nights, where as the sheet lets the cold right in.
We have received quotes for the solar system and are continuing to raise money through apparel sales to meet the target date of mid august for the installation!