Topic: Tubular heaters

[Baccy Man]

I have been given a dozen greenhouse tubular heaters they are marked as 'Phillips' 240v 60w/foot. All have been tested & appear to work. I have the following lengths:
1x 2'
4x 4'
5x 5'
2x 6'
Anyone know how effective they are? Are they worth keeping or should I just sell them on?
I do have a small (6x4) greenhouse in the garden which I could use some of them in if they are worth keeping and I could look into the possibility of rigging up a solar power source for my other greenhouses. I would then just need to remember how to calculate how many watts are required to heat a space to the desired temperature so I could work out how many tubes to use.

[northener]

What you thinking solar panel,battery and invertor? If so the larger ones would be too bigger Wattage. My mate uses them for his pups raises their bed off the ground and places an heater underneath. You could do the same bit like a propogator

[Baccy Man]

The solar side of it I can get help with locally, I know lots of people at the centre for alternative technology which is not far away & I know a couple of the engineers as Dulas who specialise in renewable energy I know their offices are powered  purely by solar power & they still have loads of excess electricity to dump in the national grid. Getting advice on how to generate sufficient power shouldn't be a problem.
I have never used an electrical heat source in a greenhouse & can't seem to find any info on what temperatures these can acheive or how they compare to a more traditional heat source like a paraffin heater.
If they are an effective heat source & cost effective to run it will give me a longer growing season which will be particularly useful for my late season tomatoes as well as the possibility of year round growing in the greenhouse.

[tonybloke]

they use approx 60 watt per foot, that's also how much heat they produce! useful as a frost guard, but you'll need to generate a lot to power them, if this is at an allotment, is it secure enough to leave all that expensive generating equipment there??