Insulating my greenhouse

I don't want to pay for heating as there will not be much in there but I have read about insulating with bubble wrap. My husband (who has just bought my greenhouse) is not keen on marking the glass with nasties and ruining it and me neither. The only other suggestions I have read is wire too hold the wrap up? Any other ideas?

thanks

J

 

There are special locking clips that hold the bubblewrap against the glass, they lock into the screw slots on the greenhouse. I used a massive roll to insulate mine. The bubble wrap wasnt wide enough to reach between the two metal panels so i had to over lap some and tape up the gaps. There are special clips available for the corners too that protrude out from the frame so you can clip it to the roof also. I will get a couple of pics up of mine and the clips. I have gone all round the inside of mine including the roof and door. For the door i removed the glass and used the glass to hold it in. You could just take each piece of glass out individually and bubble wrap it that way, could take a while though.

 

That doesn't work if you have a wooden greenhouse. To add to the difficulties mine is hexagonal. I had to cut many pieces of wrap and use board pins to hold it up. Too much work. This year I am intending to create a tent of plastic sheeting instead.
stony

 

Stony, I think your problem is caused by the hexagonal shape rather than the wood. I have a wooden summerhouse that I insulate with bubblewrap using drawing pins. And it works very well.

Kev, I would agree with you that bubble wrap works well with the locking clips that I understand fit many different types of greenhouse. I am surprised your bubblewrap doesn't span the metal frame, it spans mine easily. Your uprights must be very far apart. You could always run your bubble wrap horizontally. I don't think you would need to tape the horizontal overlaps.

One tip is to cut your bubblewrap to shape with bits for the ends and middle etc. And when you take it down, keep the the bits for each end and the middle seperate and mark what they are. Otherwise next year you will be presented with a jigsaw puzzle of pieces, and it will take ages to work out where they should be used.

 

Use the clips as Kev suggests and as an alternative try gaffer/duct tape to secure the stuff. My greenhouse is wooden framed so I use drawing pins for most of it but have to resort to gaffer/duct tape in parts.

 

I use bubble wrap and have made "curtains" ( I suppose that's the best word) and use net curtain wire with eyes and garden wire to loop those round the bolts at the top of each panel. And like Dave-gaffer tape for any fiddly bits.

 

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Hi! Logi,

A lot depends in what you intend keeping in your "new" greenhouse overwinter!

I have found insulating mine alone is not enough in this part of the country, to keep anything tender safe without heating, half hard perennials are usualy safe, but not tender house plants etc!

Last winter I lost all the dahlia tubers and gladioli corms I had stored in my insulated (no heating) greenhouse on my alotment.

About 3 dozen dahlias and literally hundreds of gladioli, they are only to give a display with.
I did no lift them all, the ones left in the soil survived and put on a good show this summer onwards!

I insulate mine with large sized bubble sheeting, I heat it with paraffin heaters if the temps are going to fall below about 40F. I always err on the side of caution and put them on, low if it is not to be too cold.

And heating is expensive no matter whis system you use!

Cheers!

 

Rather than fixing it to the glass, when I used bubble wrap, I ran 3 wires along the greenhouse - one at the apex of the roof and 2 where the slope of the roof met the upright sides, I then merely 'threaded' the bubble wrap behind these wires from floor, up the sides, over the top and back to the floor again. Just for information, you can buy bubble wrap up to 1500 mm wide.

 

Finally got time to get a few pics sorted.

 

Thank you for the pics of your insulation - will be doing mine next week this is a great help

 

Insulation is designed to reduce heatloss. It will reduce heat gain from an already weak winter sun. Without some form of heat input you may inadvertantly convert your greenhouse into a fridge by adding insulation

 

I havent seen thse clips ,where can they be bought please