We've had a couple of warm days lately. Enough to melt the snow AND get some good sunlight.
It was 35 degrees today. Still above freezing and nice and sunny. I had put my outdoor half of my wireless digital indoor/outdoor thermometer in the strawbale coldframe.
Temperature in my house (on the north windowsill) was 64 and it was almost 55 in the coldframe!
I did still want a slanted top for the cold frame, so I started working on that today. I started with one window, figuring that the ends would be the same no matter what, just the middle would be longer.
I may end up moving all this to a different part of my yard as well. The spot it's in gets great sunlight in the afternoon, but is shaded too much of the morning. Last week, the spot I would have liked to set all this up was under 5' of snow....
I measured the height and length of the window when it was slanted on the second story straw bale. I then cut a pair of triangles that size from the salvaged plywood. Inside was another scrap of wood to support the window. Near the top corner, I put a screw through the end into the window to act as a partial hinge.
Once I had all that worked out, I simply extended it by adding a 1x2 slat the length of all three windows across the upper back. Straw bales still make up the back of the structure.
And here it is from the front.
I still need to add hinges to connect the top of the windows to the upper cross member. This will allow me to prop open any of the windows. I also need to add another cross piece on the bottom (to keep the bottom of the end triangles from spreading out.) I also plan to add battens - as in "batten down the hatches!" - vertical wood strips between the windows. That will help seal between the windows to keep the heat in.
Speaking of plastic mirrors.... I did find that I had a pair of them in my garage, so I put those inside the back of the coldframe as well.
