Autoheat heater

Just bought one off e-bay. Turned it on and when the thermostat is on 0 it is still blowing warm air. Is this right or is the thermostat broken?

 

That doesn't sound right Veg. I don't know the heater, so you need to read the instructions to ensure you understand exactly what it is supposed to do. On mine there is a setting wheel with 0 for cold air, 1 for 1 kilowatt, and 2 for two kilowatts. There is another setting wheel for the actual thermostat.

The thermostat could well be broken - or stuck, which is the same thing. Even if you banged it and it then worked properly - I wouldn't be happy to trust it in future. Presumably you can return it.

However, even if you can't return it - all is not lost. I bought a couple of similar heaters, but being a physicist I never trusted the very cheap bimetalic strip thermostats, so I run mine off an external electronic thermostat from here http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SMET05.html

The advantage, as far as I am concerned is that you can set the electronic thermostat to any value you like and it will tell you what the set temperature and actual temperatures are. Also you can place the thermostat wherever you want, rather than relying on a thermostat inside the heater itself. You simply set your heater thermostat to a high value, so that it is always on, and then plug the heater into the electronic thermostat, which will now take control.

 

Mine is the smallest model for an 8x4 gh. It has one dial from 0-20.

 

It sounds as though its a 1 Kw heater, with a thermostat setting in arbitary units of 1 to 20. It doesn't sound as if the thermostat is working properly.

 

Think I will take it apart and have a look at the thermostat

 

Faulty thermostat am looking for a new one lol

 

This winter I want to keep the greenhouse heated and make sure that the plants in there survive.
I have one of those paraffin type heaters but it seems ineffective.
Have anyone else got these in use and if so, waht do you think of these heaters.

If not, like VEG. I will start to look around for an electric one.

 

Hi Shobna

I am a great believer in electrical heaters, as long as you don't want to heat your greenhouse too much. I just aim to keep mine frost free and no more.

The benefit of electricity is control. With a paraffin heater you have to light it every night in winter - just in case. With an electric heater it only comes on when the thermostat says it needs too. Even on a frosty night my heater might only be on for half an hour. Whilst electricity will be more expensive per hour than paraffin, the thermostat means that the electric heater is on for a much shorter period of time. And if I you go away for a few days in the winter, the heater will look after itself. However if you want to run your greenhouse at a high temperature over the winter, the heater will be on for a long period of time and electricity will be an expensive option.

My set up is a 2 kilowatt heater (but set to 1 Kw on all but the coldest nights) plugged into an external electronic thermostst as I explained above. The thermostat is then plugged into a power consumption meter. I use this one Plug-In Power and Energy Monitor Meter: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo The power meter is not essential, but I like to be able to monitor whats going on (I like toys). The meter will tell me how many Kwh are used over the winter, and if you take a reading daily you can tell how many minutes the heater was on the previous night.

I have a 10' by 8' summerhouse, where I overwinter a lot of plants. The year before last it used just 14 Kwh over the whole winter - about £2. This last year however it used 114 kwh - about £10 to £15 depending on what your marginal unit rate is.

But remember the cost of heating a greenhouse, like the cost of heating your house, depends very much on how well it is insulated.

 

Just fitted a new thermostat and it works like a dream

 

Well done Veg - fingers crossed.

 

Mine now works a treat with the new thermostat fitted. The old thermostat had corroded slightly.

 

I am looking to also get an auto heater which one should i go for? I am looking to grow peppers,chillies, potatoes, olives (I have a mini olive tree) and I would like to grow my banana tree to produce bananas can any one help?

Thanks