Palm Shelter

PALMETTOMAN · Post by **PALMETTOMAN** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 4:26 pm

Allen..

Looks like your yucca eleph. are holding up well..

Good stuff!

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

Alchris · Post by **Alchris** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:45 am

The shelter held up well in temps as low as -36*C with windchills between -40 and -50. The inside temp got down to -4.9*C

It seems like the worst is over. I will probably be able to check the palms in a couple of weeks as the forecast shows that we are supposed to get to freezing about that time.

Allen

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:56 am

Excellent Allen.
Good design plus placing it in the right place.
Barb

Alchris · Post by **Alchris** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:05 pm

The worst is over and I opened the shelter for the first time to let some of the sun generated heat out.

Most plants are fine. The Yucca e. that had some sickly leaves last fall has about half of them dead. The rest of the sickly leaves have recovered. Everything else looks a nice healthy green.

Except-- My Washingtonia filifera 3 yr seedlings. I didn't water them in time

and I may lose some of them.

What I learned:
-Paint the south exterior a medium to dark color to get more heat from the sun.
-Line the inside of the west north and east walls with that aluminized cloth blanket to reflect the heat back in.
-Line the ceiling with the aluminized cloth blanket.
-Reduce the roof door from 2' x 10' to 2 doors 2' x 3' each with a 4' solid section in the centre.
-It is not necessary to let the plants dry out to reduce the risk of cold damage. Water them monthly.

I am proud of my creation.

Allen

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:51 pm

Allen,
Bummer about the Washys...maybe they'll throw a new spear.

Didn't you make the roof door that size so you climb in easier?
I can't remember why there wasn't a door on the side...probably snow piled up?

Nice summary.
Barb

Alchris · Post by **Alchris** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:15 pm

A side door would affect the structural integrity( it might blow over).

A 2' x 10' Roof door is just too heavy to hold up.

Allen

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:12 pm

Ya good point.
Hope your 3 yr seedlings are OK after all.
Barb

Okanagan desert-palms · Post by **Okanagan desert-palms** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:58 am

Allen look forward to seeing success with your palm protection. Take some pics.

John

Alchris · Post by **Alchris** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:38 am

I finally got enough information to try to calculate the cost of keeping the shelter warm over the winter.

Our electricity consumption increased by 192 kilowatt hours from the previous winter which cost about $30($13 +transmission & delivery).

I figured--Yeah right--

So I started figuring out the changes in our electricity usage. We used more lights this winter(my niece and 4 times as much germination area). We got rid of our old washer and dryer and bought one of those fancy front loading washer & dryer sets. With my niece & kids, the washer/dryer was used about 2 1/2 times as much and I don't know how much that affected the electricity usage.

I figured it out this way. Upgrading our dryer more than paid for heating the palm shelter.

Another rough calculation would be .4 kilowatts x 16 hrs/day x 150 days x 1/2 usage(for warm & sunny days) = 500 kilowatt hours. Cost to me 500 x $.064/ kilowatt hour x 2.5(to allow for transmission & distribution) = $80.

Darn, I should have heated the other shelter.

I am hoping to get the front off of the shelter today and will take some pics before I put the sun shade(bubble wrap) on.

Allen

Alchris · Post by **Alchris** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:01 pm

Darn it. I got the pics but Postimage.com isn't working.

The Washingtonias have a small sign of life in the stalk. The Cycas Revoluta are fairly brown and appear to have sunburn. Most of them should survive. The Yucca elephantipes are sunburnt baddly and the Butia has several dried out/sunburnt fronds. The Chamaerops is a little pale and has one or two burnt fronds.

The weather going from 24*C and sunny to cloudy and -12*C and then back to 20*C and sunny in a week and a half has really affected everything in the shelter.

I am going to have to figure something that will gradually increase the sun while keeping the shelter temperatures between freezing and 15*C. I will also have to figure out how to allow for the reflection of the sun when the ground is covered in snow. When it was still -8*C and sunny, I sunburnt in 15 minutes.

Allen[/img]

Alchris · Post by **Alchris** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:46 pm

The sun was very bright and washed out the color quite a bit. It should be cloudy with sunny breaks over the next week which will give the palms a more gradual introduction to the sun.

Allen

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:04 pm

Allen, considering the weather you had, I think the enclosure worked really well.
Re allowing for reflection of sun off snow, would one of those opaque fibreglass (not see-through) panels help diffuse sun?
Barb

PalmsNorth.com

Palm Shelter

edmonton yucca's

Heating cost for the winter.

Who is online