Do you heat during the winter?

I thought my ears were burning
I just checked the cost of a 3" thick concrete slab for my greenhouse floor and its £23 more expensive than my entire system cost.

 

Aye, like the preverbial bad penny

 

I have read right through this thread and very interesting reading it has made too!

I was taught that the first thing you consider is; if the value of the plants being protected cost less to replace than the cost of heating the greenhouse, then you do not heat the greenhouse

I have tried many of the ideas explained here and have come to the conclusion that "electric" is the thing to use,providing you have prepared the greenhouse against "heat loss"

Plus invest in the best " thermostat " you can afford my one is accurate to +/- half a degree C.

This means it only comes on to what I set it whereas a cheaper model might only be accurate to around + / - 5C, meaning it can be on when it is not needed or conversely it is not on when it is most needed!

I could go on to write other details about how I predate my heating system but as I have already done this on my website where you can get it chapter and verse plus pictures!

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Greenhouse heating/Greenhouse Heating.htm

 

I use a storage heater to extend both ends of the season and to cool the greenhouse in the summer. It uses a small amount of electricity to tap into mother natures economy 7 tariff.

 

i just reading through this keeping the green house warm or frost free i was going to use bubble wrap i have a 6x8 alliminium with the plastic windows and i wondered if i got some uv bubble and took each window out layed a length of bubble the put it back would i be ok to leave it on all summer
thanks doormat

 

Very interesting?

 

In those days greenhouse belonged to the gentry and were very large so this made this system practical.

I don't think it would work very well in say an 8 x 6,or my 12 x 10 even, because once the bales lined the sides, there would be no space left for plants.

Thought I would just mention this in case it has not been considered already

 

Interesting subject this one, haven't got a greenhouse myself but from my polytunnel experiences I have discovered that having pallets stacked down the sides does seam to warm the tunnel up. At least I assume its that because there appears to be a difference in temp between my two next to each other. One just has 4 tier staging.

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

 

I think a windbreak around a greenhouse / tunnel is a significant benefit in reducing windspeed over the structure, and thus heat-loss, so that makes sense. Whilst I don't think straw bales stacked alongside a greenhouse would make a significant difference per se, they would definitely act as a windbreak - as would some scaffolder's debris netting attached to some posts (they need to be reasonably strong as they will be taking the force of the wind that the netting is absorbing )

 

does scafffolders netting come in clear? that would let a bit more light through

 

With my first greenhouse (a 4 x 6), I also put some bubble wrap on the outside, as well as on the inside.
I think it definately made a difference.
The only down side is that it reduces the light.

 

Not thought of that, does it get brittle in the cold weather?

 

No, it was fine.
I had that small greenhouse for a year and a half and had that bubble wrap on in the inside and outside on that greenhouse.
It was the wide sheet of the smaller bubbles. I imagine the larger bubbles would last longer.
And then again, if you are just using it to stop a draught getting in between the panes of glass etc, a simple piece of plastic sheeting would work too.

I then moved and didn't bother with my new greenhouse.
Also, it doesn't look that attractive.

 

Clear uv poly would look better and let more light in. When i get a new battery for the lux meter i`ll do a test to see what the difference is.