advice by Ceres Greenhouse Solutions
How to reduce heat in your greenhouse with shade paint
Shade paint can be applied once your greenhouse temperature starts to increase above comfortable levels for your plants. Application, and removal, are easy to complete. Follow the instructions on the paint bucket for application. We recommend SUDLAC Transpar or Redu Systems shade paints to our clients. Dilute paint in order to achieve specific heat reduction levels. Apply the paint to any glazing on your greenhouse but check with the glazing manufacturer to make sure the shade paint is compatible with your roofing system. Make sure to apply shade paint in quick drying circumstances and when rain is not on the forecast for the next 40 hours. Also, we recommend waiting for temperatures to get above 50℉ (20℃) before applying shade paint to your greenhouse. SUDLAC has a very helpful page on shade paint application and dilution directions, visit their website for details.
Shade paint can be slippery during application, so make sure to paint the exit point of the roof last; or wherever your ladder is located. Also, make sure that the roof is clean and no material, like leaves, will fall on the paint and dry with it. Although these issues will not cause any problems with the application, they simply don’t look good. Adhering to these tips will allow the shade paint to work at peak performance.
We prefer shade paint for a few reasons. The main reason is that, unlike other shading solutions, only shade paint can be light specific, meaning it will reduce incoming heat and won’t reduce photo active radiation (that the plants need) to the same level. Depending on the dilution level of the paint, one coat of paint can reduce the heat by 15%, while only reducing 7% of light that the plants can see. This is very important because your plants will still receive a healthy amount of light, at a comfortable temperature.
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