Forgive me if this is a repeat question. I have been scouring the forums until I am bleary eyed and can't quite find what I am looking for.

We have a small hobby greenhouse, an 8 x 18 foot lean-to attached to the south side of our home. We grow a wide variety of house plants, mostly sun but some shade preferring, including a couple of terrariums which we protect from direct sun. There are many plants hanging from the framing not too far from the double wall Lexan roof. There is a bench the length of the south glass windowed wall (windows can slide open). A local garden center doesn�t use any shade cloth in their expansive high-ceiling plastic covered hoop frame greenhouses, and therefore have said I shouldn�t use it either. But I think of my greenhouse as sort of a terrarium and I know that without shade cloth my plants will cook. Over the east and west windows there are small triangles in which we have set thermostatically controlled fans to remove heat. And there is an oscillating fan on the back wall that runs all year �round.

We are exploring the possibility of upgrading our black woven shade cloth, which can be raised up on the roof or rolled down on cloudy days. We have decided to try Aluminet in an effort to reflect even more heat. Our current shade cloth is so old, we forgot just how much sun it blocked and are shocked to learn that it appears the material is about 80% shade! We thought it was much less. So now while we are feeling it is way too shady, we are also worried that we don�t know what lesser percent shade will be safe for our plants and not let the sun cook them. We have been asking for advice about percent shade cloth from distributors but they all are very reluctant to make a suggestion. So we are hoping someone with real greenhouse experience can advise us.

We also want to consider a piece of Aluminet shade cloth to hang in front of the windows on the very hottest, sunniest of summer days here in northwest Connecticut to reduce the heat generated in the greenhouse and give some respite for the plants near the windows, and would like some advice on the percent shade cloth that would be best for this application.

Thank you.