any thoughts on good heating sources for a greenhouse?
I've used propane but its getting expensive. I don't have access to natural gas. I friend of mine had an outside
woodstove house and it heated the greenhouse through
pipes, but you had to babysit the firebox and all that piping added $$$$ to the cost.
Any thoughts?
-Shawn
Coal stoves. Seen an ad in the local paper a month or so ago for one that came from a greenhouse. I think it was the paper.
Bo McCarty, Realtor
If you could find an old wood burning boiler you could go with radiant heat and only have to babysit the fire box twice a day.
Argee [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
My wife's stepdad has a wood fired outdoor furnace setup to heat both his house and the greenhouse. Uses a closed loop hot water system. Still it takes alot of work using wood.
Have you considered any other ways to cut heating cost. I've seen a greenhouse insulation being advertised called Bubble Glaze that claims up to a 45% reduction in heating costs. Here's a link to it.
charleysgreenhouse.com
DFB
What are you growing in the greenhouse? Depending upon what you are growing, you may be able to grow it under row covers and significantly reduce your heating requirements.
I helped my buddy build an outside woodstove that blows air through large rocks laid around the firebox. The warmed air is then blown into the house. He has used it for the last 5 years or so and it is his sole source of heat. Total cost to build was about (I think) $500. One of the most expensive components was the door. The firebox is about 3'x5' and he stokes once or twice a day. The rock box around the outside is about 9 or 10' in diameter and 8' tall. Once the rock is hot, it lasts quite awhile.
Disadvantages: Someone must be home to tend the fire. It is VERY larbor intensive to build. (Wow! Whata lota rock!) We never quite managed to get the insulation system around the outside of the stone box quite right so there is some heat loss.
SHF
You might consider just heating the growing beds rather than the space, something I have looked into and plan to incorporate into a to-be-built propagation greenhouse next year. Basically, you run radiant type piping through a gravel bed which is directly under your plants and run heated water (with or without glycol, depending on severity of climate and danger of power disruption) through the pipes as needed (governed by thermostat) In theory at least the gravel serves as a heat sink and radiates upward to help protect plants from freezing. I'm planning to also run piping in the floor, but will put it on a separate, lower temp thermostat as freeze protection. If the greenhouse is not too big, the water can be heated via conventional (gas or elec) water heater.
I usually start growing at the end of january. This is when I
start seeds for tomato, pepper, and cabbage family. The greenhouse is 20x60' and has a double layer of 6mil poly.
By the end of march the trouble is getting the extra heat OUT of the greenhouse as the temp sometimes hit 100F. but this is easy with fans and vents.
Thnx for all the responses
Shawn
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