Rion Kit

[oldcat61]

Too late to ask for advice. The instructions made my husband crazy but seems well made. Had to put it up on cement blocks to line up with the dining room windows. Sue

[*Barracuda_52*]

That looks fantastic.

[Joel143]

Exact same one and size I have. Beware! lol After two years I've ran out of space. Was so easy to fill up. Now looking into getting one or two of the four foot extensions. All in all though yall will enjoy it. Best thing I could of did for myself is getting a Rion. It's made it through 60 mph winds with no problems. One thing though it does heat up quite a bit even with the windows open. I had to buy some shade cloth to place on top of it.

And yes the instructions were hectic to follow. Quite a few times I just threw in the towel to cool off, relax and start where I left off. Was worth it though in the end.

[oldcat61]

Joel - thanks for the reassurance. I'm limited by the size of the house; any wider & I hit the chimney.

[CactusFanDan]

Shiny! Looks great and hopefully your plants love it too.

[CoronaCactus]

Our 8x16 has been up since 2009, haven't had to repair or replace anything! Good quality for the price.

I like the raised bed in front, looks great!

[oldcat61]

Thanks We had to put it on 2 rows of block to line up with the windows. The plain block looked ugly, plus we had to tear out a bed to install the GH. Just put everything from there, back in the new bed. I don't think the daffs & peonies even knew they had been transplanted. It got quite hot today, even with the vent & door open. Looks like I'm hunting for shade cloth tomorrow. Will try my farmer friends. Sue

[Joel143]

Sue, what I did in my Rion GH was place two fans that run continuously. It's the type that we call a window fan. You can find them at Walmarts for about $15. In my Walmart there on sale now for $12. I just ran an outdoor extension cord. Along with the shade cloth I have it works fine for me. In my Rion I have two ceiling vents and one for the back wall. I placed one fan infront of the back vent drawing the air out of the GH since warmer air rises and the other fan near the entrance blowing in to circulate the air. I keep my entrance doors shut due to my cats and other nightly critters. My ceiling vents are open with the shade cloth over them which keeps unwanted birds and things from flying in. I will need to post a pic for you to see.

[oldcat61]

Joel - where do you put the fan? I was thinking of one in the vent to exhaust. Sue

[Joel143]

Sue I just edited my previous entry because I forgot to mention where I placed them.

[oldcat61]

I only have one roof vent & one door. I made a screen door ( also have cats ) so I can leave the door open. Will try the fan in the roof - have to figure how to hide the cord. Time for bed; will ponder tomorrow. Thanks for your advice.

[CoronaCactus]

I used 2 strong zipties to hang the fan from the tension cable. I then ziptied the cord along the cable and looped it above the other cables to the door and then down and out. For added protection i wrapped the plug connections in 2 plastic bags with more zipties.

The fan is on a timer that runs it from 8am to 6pm.

[Joel143]

Sue here is a "terrible" pic I just took. Sorry was from camera phone. Mine is close to my utility window so I just ran my extension from there. Inside the extension runs along the bottom ontop of the pea gravel that I've placed as the floor of the GH. GH is behind my house. As you see in the pic the back vent on the back wall. I screwed two large screws through the frame and used tie straps (zip ties) to hang my fan infront of it. My GH has two entry doors, my other fan is on the ground in the corner circulating the air below. My shade cloth I got was too small as you see. I used budge straps to hold down the shade cloth. And the two glowing yellow eyes is one of my cats that likes to relax ontop in the evening. My two ceiling vents are open as you see under the shade cloth.

[CoronaCactus]

That reminds me, the shadecloth that came with my kit was also too small....how can a 6x12 peice of cloth cover an 8x16 GH...

[Joel143]

Along with mine being to small it was also 70% shade. But so far with our hot summer sun it seems to balance out not covering the entire GH. A lot of sun still gets in and I've had no ill affects from the cacti growing inside.