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Originally Posted by chong
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• Posted by arctictropical Z4 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 1, 08 at 10:28
Good morning Glen. Yes, the small boxes over the bananas have one flourescent light. I just use the inexpensive plastic or ceramic light fixtures that cost a couple of dollars each. Yes, I wired the boxes myself. Since the boxes are so small, one light bulb puts out enough heat that builds up nicely inside. One year I lost power to the banana boxes and they froze to the ground, but sprouted from the underground corms in the Spring. "Texas Star" is supposed to be about as hardy as basjoo, and produces edible bananas, but I don't ever expect to get any in my climate. Go for it!
Kevin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alpha010
I would love to get drawings and schemas on these structures and maybe even a supplier list of certain things, i.e. styrofoam boards. Then I wont have to worry about purchasing a greenhouse for my hobby whan I can do the same thing cheaper. Also, I am suspecting but did not remember reading whether the lights stayed on 24/7 or if they werer kicked off at certain points. Would really like to know.
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Styrofoam boards are available in most hardware/lumber stores, including Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, etc. They commonly come in various thicknesses up to 4", and 4'x8' sheets. If you look at the photo of the boxes, you will see that there are nailing strips at corners, and in the middle of the boards to retain the boards to a frame. So, that would suggest where the frame members are. For this application, given the fact that all the structure needs is to keep the Styrofoam boards together, it can be made from standard 2x2 lumber. Then, in order to keep the boxes from blowing over in strong winds, the are guy-roped on each corner to a ground stake, just as you would a tent.
From the above description by the author, it would appear that he may be leaving it the light on 24/7. A 100-watt light output fluorescent bulb only uses 17 Watts of electricity, the 60-watt fluorescent - only 13 Watts. Depending on the thickness of the S. board, with so little heat that it produces (17 Watts = 58 BTU/hour), turning the lamp off for several hours, equivalent to nighttime) will make it difficult for that tiny lamp to recover, or may never recover. I can try to calculate the heat loss through that smaller structure, which I think is about 2'x4'x2'high, and see how thick the wall needs to be in order to allow shutting down the lamp for, say, 8-hours a day.