Keeping the dome cool
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| Shade cloth | Screen door fans |
During winter, sunny days warm up the dome beautifully. However, on warm days in the summer all that solar energy can over-heat the inside of the dome which isn't good for the plants. There are four automatically opening vents, two high two low, and they work well but on warm summer days more is needed. We have now put in place the shade cloth and a screen door with fans which have served to keep the temperature reasonable.
The shade cloth, first photo above, is a sort of aluminum/fabric mesh that we've stretched over part of the dome. It lets through about 50% of the sunlight and helps to reduce the solar energy entering the dome. The plants still get light through the shade cloth and, as it doesn't cover all the dome, they still get direct sunlight depending on where the sun is in the sky. In early fall when to warmer days are over we'll take it down for the winter.
The screen door, second photo, is on the inside and I've attached two window box fans to it. On warm days we leave the main door open and turn on the fans. The fans draw a certain amount of power, but of course they are only needed on sunny days when by definition we have lots of power available. Eventually they will be controlled by thermostat but, until that gets done (there are lots of things on the "dome todo list") we turn them on an off by hand.