Topic: Its Ironic..........

[Tee Gee]

I got my new greenhouse heater yesterday and I set it up to keep my greenhouse frost free 3°-4°C ( 36°-40°F) and we got no frost  :-\

The heater looks good but I have to say I can't see how they can charge £157 for it.

I would have thought half that would have been enough!

A sign of the times I guess  :(

With all this 'new' interest in gardening and growing your own all I have seen of late is garden materials & equipment rocketing in price, as commerce tries to fleece a new market.

Looks like I will be doing a lot of seed saving and compost making this year to keep the costs down for next year!  :-\

Ah well as the saying goes; everything has its price!!

[euronerd]

If it's any consolation Tee Gee, yours is the only one I've seen with a 'proper' thermostat. Most of the rest have nothing more than a variable on/off timer, as seen on electric cookers, which take no account of the surrounding temperature.

I have a theory about the high cost: if they're well designed and well built, they'll last for ages so the company won't have a high production output once everybody is supplied. It's a very old theory and in reality, it's probably nothing more than the all encompassing corporate greed.

Now you've bought it of course, there'll be no more frosts.  ;D

Geoff.

[laurieuk]

Congrats Tee gee on getting a good one as I said before mine is now 30 years old and still going. I have found in the spring when it is in use to maintain a reasonable temp. it is most economical to keep the fan running all the time and let the thermo. put the elements on as required. The moving air helps keep an even temp.

[Tee Gee]

Thanks Laurie

Oddly enough I was thinking of that very same thing and had planned on getting your views on the matter.

I probably would have done it in any case as generally in 'spring' the humidity in the greenhouse tends to rise what with all the seedlings growing and it is not always practical to open windows to get the air moving.

So once again thanks for your assistance!

Sadly I haven't  found out how good the heater is yet :-\ its been too warm of late and there has been no need for it to switch itself on.

What it is going to save is; is a trip up the garden to switch on my heater if temperature got too low, my last heater didn't have a frost stat on it.

By the way;  how I monitored my heating in the past was to use a wireless heat sensor.

I have a sensor in the greenhouse and a monitor in the kitchen so this saved me a trip up the garden on wet/cold nights to check my max/min thermometer and find out if I needed to switch the heater on.

Theoretically this will be done for me now so I can remain indoors and things should be OK.

Then when things get going;    I will set my lamp to 'let their be light!  and it will switch itself on two hours before sunrise and two hours after.

Ah! the joys of technology!

Sometimes I wish I had such things forty years ago but then I get to thinking at least I know what makes plants tick now, having learned the hard way.

Had I not known this; I think I would have lost quite a bit of stuff over the last month due to not having a heater wheras my losses seem to be minimal!

Reminds me of my apprenticeship instuctions.........learn to do it the correct way first ......... and taking shortcuts will come with experience!

How true that advice still is, even in todays technological world!