If you live and breathe plants, you have probably dreamed of living in a greenhouse at some point. With housing prices at all-time highs and remote working more common than ever before, you may be wondering if you could actually turn your gardener’s dream into a reality.
Here are some challenges and practical tips for living in a greenhouse to help you imagine whether this is something you could actually consider:
Climate Control is Going to be a Challenge
It probably won’t come as a shock to you that greenhouses aren’t typically well-insulated. Even if high-quality glass is used, most greenhouses allow a fair amount of temperature fluctuation depending on the outside temperature.
Keeping the greenhouse at a temperature that isn’t just acceptable to plants but to your living conditions takes some consideration. Wall AC Units are well-suited to the challenge.
Choose a powerful PTAC unit for the amount of space you’re cooling. You’ll need more BTUs to get the job done than if you were controlling the temperature in a normal room of the same space. To help the wall air conditioner maintain the temperature in your greenhouse home, use fans for good air circulation. Blackout curtains can prevent some of the most intense sunlight of the day from heating the space.
You’re Going to Want More Privacy Than Plants Provide
You may feel sheltered by the plants in a greenhouse when you’re gardening, but when you’re living your everyday life in your greenhouse home, you’re going to need some more solid privacy.
Curtains are a natural solution since they supply good privacy when you want them but can be pushed out of the way to let the greenhouse get as much light as you’d like.
Blinds are another great option that provides cleaner lines and different choices in the kind of privacy that you can achieve. As you arrange living quarters in your greenhouse home, make sure to think about how you’ll create privacy in the space.
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Humidity Can be an Issue
Greenhouses tend to have high humidity, which is great for plants. However, for people, this kind of humidity can be unpleasant.
Your PTAC air condition unit will do a lot to reduce the local humidity in your greenhouse home. Fans can help as well.
To keep plants happy, group them together so they can benefit from one another’s humidity. If the plants in your greenhouse don’t seem to be getting enough humidity but you don’t want to increase the humidity for your own comfort level, trays of pebble and water, small fountains, humidifiers, and other sources of local humidity can be placed among groupings of plants.
With some experimentation, you’ll arrive at a compromise in humidity to keep plants healthy while you remain comfortable as well.
There Might be Bugs
If you don’t have more plants in the greenhouse than would typically be in an average home, you probably won’t have any more trouble with bugs than any house would provided the greenhouse is properly sealed.
However, if you have a lot of plants in the greenhouse, bug infestations can be problematic. From crickets chirping all night to gnats buzzing around the fruit bowl, there are lots of issues with bugs in a greenhouse home. Grouping plants away from living areas and providing insect control throughout the greenhouse can be a good solution.
Is Living in a Greenhouse Worth It?
A greenhouse isn’t a very common housing choice, but does that mean that you should abandon this dream completely? The truth is that most people will find a more practical housing choice than a greenhouse.
However, for some people, in some situations, a greenhouse can be a fun and fascinating living solution. Converting a greenhouse into a living space can be an unusual way to provide multi-family housing or increase your family’s living area.
Whether you want to live in a greenhouse full-time or you like the idea of turning a greenhouse into a novelty living area, it is possible to make a greenhouse a pleasant home for both plants and people.
As long as you keep in mind the inherent limitations of living in a greenhouse and have a sufficient budget to do the necessary renovations to make greenhouse living comfortable, you may well decide that living in a greenhouse is worth the downsides.
Make Your Dream of Living in a Greenhouse a Reality
There are some real challenges to consider in turning a greenhouse into a home. However, with excellent temperature control, creative solutions for privacy, and workarounds to create an appropriate climate in the greenhouse, it is entirely possible for you to live in a greenhouse part or full-time.
