A pane in the glass

I heard a loud crash in the night a few days ago. This morning I found out what it was. Two sheet of glass had fallen out of my greenhouse. I need to repair it this weekend but I am not sure whether to use real glass or polycarbonate. Which is best I wonder?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I loved your post title, but you are right, what a pain.
That's a good question. I've always been a traditionalist and like glass, but the new greenhouse we have on order will be all double walled polycarb. The newer polycarbs aren't supposed to go cloudy like the old material did, and it's supposed to have more insulative value than single pane glass. I suppose another advantage is it won't go 'crash' in the middle of the night too! ;)
Nat said…
Glass holds more heat, and is a lot more classy. Poly cheap, easy and plentiful. Can't smash poly either.

A decision based on preference and wallet. Both work great
I've built and grown in several greenhouses. My advice is insulated polycarbonate (also known as twinwall) if you can afford it. I'm guessing Nat is referring to poly as in polyethylene (greenhouse film) when he says it's cheap...? Film is cheap, and works well on hoops. But your structure looks like it needs rigid material. Glass lets in more light but that can also mean it burns plants, and most will thrive with a lower light transmission, like that from polycarbonate. The insulated lets in less light than single-wall but the heat loss with single is bad, just like with glass. You get really hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Hope this helps.

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