One of the first things I did after leaving my job and deciding to spend more time on the homestead was to build a greenhouse. I talked to my neighbor who was an organic farmer and had several PVC greenhouses on his property. He said the plans came from USDA website. He told me it worked pretty well and he didn't have a lot of problems. I looked online and found a nice website that explain the benefits of building a PVC greenhouse. I took down the design and modified it for my needs, bought all the materials I needed, found a suitable place and built the greenhouse. The green house was 20 feet by 12, the green house oriented north to south length wise. I did this so as to have some storage on the north end.
Side View
The first summer it worked really well. I was very happy with how it came out and added materials necessary to plant my seedlings. With the onset of winter I hoped the greenhouse could handle a snow load, living in the Southwest we can get heavy snows but they are infrequent. The plans indicated it would handle a moderate snow load. During the winter of my first season we had a very heavy wet snow and when I went out to look at the greenhouse it had collapsed and was crushed. I assume that I had not added enough support so I rebuilt the greenhouse shoring it up making it stronger. With the start of the new planning season everything worked out just fine but when winter came again we got a wet snow and the greenhouse came tumbling down again.
Solar Panels
Entrance
I decided that I was getting tired of rebuilding the greenhouse so I decided to make the greenhouse out of metal poles and lumber no more pvc. I used chain-link posts for the frame 2 x 6 for the base, I added three 4 x 4 eight-foot fence post as support for the interior. I used two 10 foot 4 x 4 posts across the top as support and 2 x 4 pine boards for my rafters. I covered the north side roof about 5 feet with corrugated panels using that part of the greenhouse as a small storage shed. This made the green house 12 feet by 15 feet with 5 foot of storage on the end. This really worked out well as I used it to support solar panels so I could have solar generated electricity in the greenhouse. I added batteries wired the greenhouse for lights so now my greenhouse is essentially an an off grid greenhouse. I use the electricity produced which is stored in batteries to run lights and a modified swamp cooler to help regulate temperature in the greenhouse. So far the greenhouse has been working without any problems for over five years.
Chain Link Posts
Center Beam
If you decide to build a greenhouse think it through. With the changing weather you have to make sure it can withstand the elements and the greenhouse can take anything nature throws at it. When I first built the greenhouse I assume that the wind was going to be the biggest problem and we have hard winds here in the Southwest, but the wind has been the least of my problems. We don't get a lot of snow here but lately when we do get snow it has been wet and heavy. Normally the snow is lite and dry but winters have become milder and the snow patterns have changed. The nice thing about the greenhouse it that in the off season it used for storage and as a work shop.
Solar Controller and Batteries
Center View Out Door