Last fall I had a sun tube installed in the third car garage where palms over winter. It helps a lot of natural light for them.

All of mine along with the bananas are shoved in a small room with the water heater. There is 1 CFL bulb on 24/ 7. My building which houses around 400 agave and cacti has 10 T8 light fixtures and baseboard electric heat. 8)

Scott great pics and info on your palms. Really like the barrel`s for protection idea. I`m not the only palm nut using the garage as a storage area for palms. What are you using to heat the garage in the winter?

John

John, my garage never drops below freezing. I have newer insulated garage doors, and I've added insulation to the attic above the garage. Years ago I added a wall mounted propane wall heater so if outside temps are predicted to drop below 0F I will turn it on LOW and let it run all the time. Doesn't take much propane(hooked to main tank that feeds furnace) and will keep garage at 50F easily. I have two ceiling fans as well to help keep heat off ceiling but some of the taller palms I can tell get some frond damage from the heat that is up there(queen palms) so this season I hooked up one of those high speed room fans to a timer and have it set to run 15 minutes every hour to circulate the warm air throughout the garage and it seemed to help.

Love the sun tube idea!

Here in the Midwest we are having May type days in Early March...even extended forecast looks good.

Here is a series of pictures of the 14 inch Sun Tube that is in 3rd car garage where some palms over winter. It was mid day when I took this picture and there are 4 potted palms that spent Winter indoors. 3 species of King palms and one Cuban Royal palm. I had them outside for a bit getting some sun and spraying them for spider mites (Myola King had them bad) so until I can leave them all outside for good I have them below the Sun Tube. No other ceiling lights are one in the garage, only the garage doors with windows are allowing any extra light in, and they are facing west. Sun Tubes do put off a lot of light on totally clear days like today and can't help but think the palms love it in the winter as well.

Scott that`s a great idea "sun tubes"for the garage. I have been using T5 fluorescent bulbs to give extra light in my garage. The sun would be a whole lot cheaper 8) How much all in for one sun tube? I may need two or three next winter.

John

Sun Tubes themselves aren't that expensive. They come in 10inch and 14inch sizes. Without ever seeing one in some body else's garage I opted for the larger size. The real expense is if you have to have it installed by someone..which I did. When it comes to cutting holes in the roof of your home, I didn't want to trust myself for the install..and the potential leaks. I think I paid $300? for it to be done. That side of the garage angles to the South too.

Here is a pic of it's profile on the roof.

Great photos of what the sun tube does, Scott.

John, I visited a friend who recently renovated his "middle of the house bathroom" which had no windows.
On a tour of the renovations, during a half-cloudy day, I was absolutely floored by the amount of "daylight" in his normally dark shower enclosure.

And had the day been sunny, the light cast by the sun tube would've probably equated to a 200 w bulb.
I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it myself.
And if you're up in Vernon any time, let me know and I'll take you over to his place. It's only 5 minutes away.

Worth every penny.
Agree with Scott about the professional installation re leaks.

Barb

Thanks for the info Scott. Agreed that a pro should do the install. Barb maybe a time for a visit it`s been a while. 🙂

John

I will be taking down my barrel enclosure I used on a 6-7 foot windmill this past winter. It was not insulated so I will be curious to see how healthy the tree is. It was my oldest and healthiest trees so I figured that it was the best one to run the test. I had three barrels stacked on top of eachother, I'll try to take as many pics as I can and post in my thread once I open things up. I like the idea of the spray foam, however how I put my barrels together, I have them cut all the way down one side so I can "clam shell" them around the tree without having to put it over the top (something that will be difficult as they get taller), my question would be when you stretch the barrel open, will you see the foam crack off the sides as the barrel flexes to open.

How bout if you used the barrels, split down the middle, but glued fiberglass house insulation inside them? Like R13 or R19 fiberglass and 3M spray adhesive to hold it in place? Those cans of Great Stuff expanding foam would get expensive and the foam doesn't hold up to mechanical shock very well.

How bout if you used the barrels, split down the middle, but glued fiberglass house insulation inside them? Like R13 or R19 fiberglass and 3M spray adhesive to hold it in place? Those cans of Great Stuff expanding foam would get expensive and the foam doesn't hold up to mechanical shock very well.

I would say in terms of long term durability that doesn't seem like a good idea to me. These barrels take up a lot of room, my intent will be to throw them out behind my shed during the summer time for storage. I have 5 6-8 foot tall palms that I have to box up each winter. If you want to monkey with batting, you might as well wrap the palm in frost cloth, mummy wrap with the batting and then cover with a tarp. Just my opinion....

I guess it depends on how much energy you can afford to waste...
the good old days when(basically) saranwrap was enough with enough heat 😆

They also make foam like people build their palm
covers with that you can bend or roll out.

ICE STATION ZEBRA
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ice station zebra 😆 😆

A shiver went down my back when I saw the winter pics.

Barb