Evening all, and a belated Happy New to everyone on A4All, my question for you though is, are there any hints,tips,or advice on an electric greenhouse heater for my 8x6 greenhouse, i have a garage approx 8 foot from the greenhouse door and it has plug sockets that i could access via a hole drilled in garage wall to supply power, but my heads hurting from all the flashy adverts on the Net saying this, that, and the other about their heaters, i just want plain and simple advice, from people that give honest advice, and that's where you guys come in!! Ta very much ;D ;D ;D
Morning and a happy new year to you. You want just a blower heater with thermostatic control. Get a max min thermometer as well and set the controls on the heater to suit you lucky thing. I have a greenhouse on the lottie i'd need a mile long extension to plug into the garage. £20 Asda living or Argos.
I have an 8' x 6' and treated myself to a Tropic 1-2 kw heater. Now three years old and still working fine. Not cheap - most charge around £55 - but there is a surprisingly good price of £39 at this site - too good to be true?
http://www.greenhousestoday.co.uk/details.asp?prodid=Tropic&cat=26 (http://www.greenhousestoday.co.uk/details.asp?prodid=Tropic&cat=26)
best of the rest is probably this one:
http://www.keengardener.co.uk/product/Bio_Green_Tropic_2.0Kw_Electric_Greenhouse_Heater/1300/View.rails (http://www.keengardener.co.uk/product/Bio_Green_Tropic_2.0Kw_Electric_Greenhouse_Heater/1300/View.rails)
I only run it to maintain frost free (5 degC) conditions but it can be used to create a warm greenhouse if you want, so there's flexibility.
Thanks for the tip Northener and Barnowl, i'll be looking at the website in a min, ideally i'd like to keep the greenhouse warm enough to start my little seedlings a bit earlier, and to try keep alive my banana plants. ;D ;D ;D
Probably Grandmother / eggs, but please remember that anything electrical in the greenhouse should be at least splashproof.
We have also been looking into heaters, does anyone have any idea how much they effect electric bills?? we can run the cable to it quite easily but were wondering if the meter would be whizzing around like a good un!!
You must at least have one that is splashproof and ideally designed for non-domestic use. I have a Parasene thrmostaically controlled one that works fine (getting on a bit now too).
Here is a link to what I believe is the newer model http://www.garden4less.co.uk/greenhouse-heaters.asp
Hope it helps TC :)
What you want to grow/sow is the main thing to determine what type of heating system you require.
Firstly if you heat the whole greenhouse then it is going to cost you a fortune.
Try and localise your heat so the first option I would go for is a propagator closely followed by a cable/mat. (as it happens I have both)
With a cable you could rig a hot bed up with a cover thus giving you a giant propagator.
My fan heater is very rarely used, I use it only if very hard frost is forecast and as it is thermostaically controlled the use is even more minimal.
Have a read here; http://tinyurl.com/2fpaov about my system then get back to me if you have any queries. (click on the pics to enlarge them)