polycarbonate
 

Has anybody used this material to build a greenhouse or passive solar
collector. I am not familiar with the material. How easy is it to work
with? Are there any places like Home depot or Lowes that might carry it or
do you have to order over the Internet. How clear is it and would it be OK
to use in front of a window?

Dave

polycarbonate
 

"Dave" wrote in message
. ..
Has anybody used this material to build a greenhouse or passive solar
collector. I am not familiar with the material. How easy is it to work
with? Are there any places like Home depot or Lowes that might carry it
or do you have to order over the Internet. How clear is it and would it
be OK to use in front of a window?

It would be a good greenhouse, I don't know about solar collector though,
but I'd guess yes.

As for clarity, it is used as window glazing in place of glass. It is used
for windows on airplanes. It will be available at many sources from window
shops, hardware stores, plastic sheet suppliers. Lexan is a brand of
polycarbonate.

polycarbonate
 

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 21:46:19 GMT, "Dave" wrote:

Has anybody used this material to build a greenhouse or passive solar
collector. I am not familiar with the material. How easy is it to work
with? Are there any places like Home depot or Lowes that might carry it or
do you have to order over the Internet. How clear is it and would it be OK
to use in front of a window?

Dave


I've used it to make ports and hatches for my boat. also made some
front bumpers for AGV's for the plant I ran. it works fairly easily
with common woodworking tools. I bought mine from a plastics
wholesaler by the full sheet. You can get it in various thicknesses
and clear to various tints.

polycarbonate
 

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 21:46:19 GMT, "Dave" wrote:

Has anybody used this material to build a greenhouse or passive solar
collector. I am not familiar with the material. How easy is it to
work
with? Are there any places like Home depot or Lowes that might carry
it or
do you have to order over the Internet. How clear is it and would
it be OK
to use in front of a window?

Dave


We just had our little deck covered with it. It is clear. Birds
won't land on ours, I think because they can not see the bottom. It
is very nice.

aloha,
Thunder
smithfarms.com
Farmers of 100% Kona Coffee
& other Great Stuff

polycarbonate
 

Dave writes:

How clear is it and would it be OK to use in front of a window?

Expensive. Ages rapidly in sunlight. Susceptible to many oils and
solvents.

polycarbonate
 

there are a variety of polycarbonate products and coatings. see:
http://www.gelexan.com/gelexan/

polycarbonate
 

"Richard J Kinch" wrote in message
. ..
Dave writes:

How clear is it and would it be OK to use in front of a window?

Expensive. Ages rapidly in sunlight. Susceptible to many oils and
solvents.

Rich is right on. There *are* ploycarbonate sheets with UV filtering
coatings. This must face outside to protect the sheet. Polycarbonate has a
soft surface and will scratch easy. This may be a concern if clarity is an
issue.

Why not use acrylic? While polycarbonate is the toughest, acrylic still has
many times the impact strength of glass, it is much lower cost and it won't
haze over in the sunlight. While it scratches easier than glass it is less
suseptable to hazing due to fine surface scratches than polycarbonate.

John