Hot box from wine bottles

http://peacockorchard.com/2015/07/13/wine-bottle-hot-box/


The experiment has begun to see if this is an effective method of increasing our zone by a bit. We have 2 troughs like this, both have peppers in them, both now have thermometers. We will post results here when they come.



Anyone else built a hot box?

Glass is really bad at absorbing solar radiation. Some wavelengths are reflected, others pass thru.
I guess if they're empty it will work a little. Maybe get some baseline temp data as is then compare with putting a bit of soil in each bottle to absorb those photons.

Steve Farmer wrote:Glass is really bad at absorbing solar radiation. Some wavelengths are reflected, others pass thru.
I guess if they're empty it will work a little. Maybe get some baseline temp data as is then compare with putting a bit of soil in each bottle to absorb those photons.

I think because of the size used and the number of bottles (about 100) it will not take too much sun collection to increase the temp of the soil. But, we shall see.