Heating

First cold night of the year and the plug of the greenhouse heater fused :( Temperature dropped to 45 F so hopefully nothing fatal. Gonna get a parafin heater for back up

 

Ouch! I'd get the heater checked over too. You possibly have some earth leakage due to dampness in the 'house.

Hopefully nothing has come to harm.

 

Thanks, F. Heater seems ok and just the fuse blew in the plug. Its working now, but I bought a paraffin heater. Belt and braces. Orchids and cacti in the greenhouse so the orchids may suffer. We shall see

 

After I lost a whole lot of plants one winter - I got belt and braces, and belt and braces - two fan heaters - one in use, and one spare + a parafin heater.

 

Fuses are like lamps, they can blow at any time.
Fran's method is probably the best safeguard, it's highly unlikely that two would fail at the same time. I would suggest setting the thermostat on one slightly higher than the other so that if the main one fails then the other cuts in at a degree or two lower.

 

With all this talk of paraffin heaters,do they pollute the atmosphere with their fumes like other things do?
We used to always use one for our greenhouse,but one day woke up to find the whole greenhouse and plants covered in soot because the wick hadn't been trimmed...something we didn't know about.Everything had to be completly cleaned and I think we lost a lot of plants.We learn't from this and brought an electric fan heater,but try to get away with using it,by having it on a themostat so that it only heats the greenhouse when needed.
We also found that it got quite difficult to find parrafin suppliers round here.Another reason to give up with it

 

As you know I have a new Greenhouse 8'x6'. What size of paraffin heater would I need?..without turning it into a sauna

 

Try this one Nick
http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSite/product/HEPMIDI.htm

Will you be putting up bubble insulation?

 

Yes Dendy,I have been looking around the building sites for bubble wrapping insulation but typically none to be found :rolleyes: I will pop to Focus and get some tomorrow.

 

Agree with Kandyfloss, parrafin is a smelly fumey way to heat a greenhouse, but if its too far to run a cable, I suppose its the only way.
Dont worry about turning it into a sauna Paladin. With the ventilation that required to run a parafin heater, that wont happen.
You need outside air coming in, in order for the heater to burn properly.

 

See your point Pete.

 

Paladin you get some good deals on bubblewrap on e-bay

 

'Obtained'a heater today,it's a double wick burner.

It looks man enough to me!

 

We have a paraffin heater with 2 chimney things on it Nick looks similar to yours ,got it at a bootsale for �£2 .