jpowell86
Chameleon Enthusiast
So, I converted one of my greenhouses into a space for my melleri. I have tried many enclosures and free ranges for my melleri but this has to be my favorite.
I live in Texas so I was worried about the heat of our summers. It is not easy keeping a greenhouse cool. I ended up building an external frame that suspends Shatex over the outer layer of the greenhouse creating a 6 inch gap between the two. Thanks to my little knowledge of thermodynamics and my brothers! I also placed a cheap a/c unit in the greenhouse. Prior to doing any of this, my greenhouse would reach temps over 100 in the summer afternoon sun with ease. That is without venting of course.
The last ten days here have been brutal with heat indexes reaching 108 in my area. But, this was a perfect situation to see how my greenhouse would hold up to the heat.
I think I have solved my heat problems. During the hottest part of the day, my greenhouse maintained a 79 degree temp. When I kicked on the misters inside, the temp dropped to 71 degrees. At night, I have been able to drop the temps down into the lower 60's with ease.
This excites me, because I may be able to keep more montane species in the greenhouse than previously thought. I didn't want to experiment before I could get a grasp on what temps I could keep. My chameleons love it out there. Natural sunshine and heavy plant growth have made a huge difference in the overall health of the animals I keep in the greenhouse v inside. I don't say that lightly either. I keep very heavily planted enclosures inside and pride myself on natural habitat simulation. But, there is still no comparison. I have melleri that I got off the last import back in April that I played with as far as growth rates are concerned. There were two that were the exact same size and there was only a 8 gram difference between the two. The size of the one inside doesn't even compare to the one outside. Needless to say I will be expanding the greenhouse techniques and pushing to keep more outside this way.
I live in Texas so I was worried about the heat of our summers. It is not easy keeping a greenhouse cool. I ended up building an external frame that suspends Shatex over the outer layer of the greenhouse creating a 6 inch gap between the two. Thanks to my little knowledge of thermodynamics and my brothers! I also placed a cheap a/c unit in the greenhouse. Prior to doing any of this, my greenhouse would reach temps over 100 in the summer afternoon sun with ease. That is without venting of course.
The last ten days here have been brutal with heat indexes reaching 108 in my area. But, this was a perfect situation to see how my greenhouse would hold up to the heat.
I think I have solved my heat problems. During the hottest part of the day, my greenhouse maintained a 79 degree temp. When I kicked on the misters inside, the temp dropped to 71 degrees. At night, I have been able to drop the temps down into the lower 60's with ease.
This excites me, because I may be able to keep more montane species in the greenhouse than previously thought. I didn't want to experiment before I could get a grasp on what temps I could keep. My chameleons love it out there. Natural sunshine and heavy plant growth have made a huge difference in the overall health of the animals I keep in the greenhouse v inside. I don't say that lightly either. I keep very heavily planted enclosures inside and pride myself on natural habitat simulation. But, there is still no comparison. I have melleri that I got off the last import back in April that I played with as far as growth rates are concerned. There were two that were the exact same size and there was only a 8 gram difference between the two. The size of the one inside doesn't even compare to the one outside. Needless to say I will be expanding the greenhouse techniques and pushing to keep more outside this way.
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