Thermostatically controlled propane gas heater

I bought 2 Fir Tree gas heaters for 2 greenhouses about 15 to 20 years ago, and the ignition went on one about a year ago and the thermocouple has gone on the 2nd one about 30 minutes ago. 'Luckily' I'm down to one greenhouse and have a back up electric fan heater (on now) + additional back up old blue flame paraffin heaters (will fill & trim wick tomorrow).

But what I need is a speedy replacement thermostatically controlled calor gas heater suitable for a 8 x 10 greenhouse. I can recall some cheap ones being posted on this forum some time ago, but can't find them. Anybody got any recommendations?

 

I have one that used to be called "Eden" and is now called "lifestyle". If you are searching on eBay you probably need to use both search terms, if you want a new one then "lifestyle" should do. Example:
http://www.greenhousewarehouse.com/products/heat-gas-lifestyle1.9-gas-greenhouse-heater-1.9kw.html

Thermostatically controlled, and has a somewhat adjusted-height flame (I think the thermocouple is in some way progressive, so it starts off with a small height flame, and if it still gets colder it gets a taller flame as a consequence - which probably helps with hysteresis)

 

Have a look see here :-
http://www.greenhousepeople.co.uk/accessories/heaters/gas-heaters/hotbox_value_popane_heater_15kw/
but try caravan heater people for spares for your old ones.

 

The 'Lifesyle' one was the first that came up on a google search, and probably what I'll order in the next day or so (approx £80) unless somebody advises me otherwise
.

 

Have a quick look on eBay for a second hand one, nearby to you, first? I got mine for £40 and they threw in 3 empty gas bottles (which have a hefty deposit of course ...)

But no argument from me if you want a new one with guarantee etc.

 

Nothing near me, but there's one that may be near you if you want another Propane greenhouse heater/Suffolk/ebay


I ordered one off Amazon this morning for £80 incl P&P which wasn't too painful as I had £30 in e-vouchers. Might make one good heater out of my 2 broken ones and sell that to further ease the financial pain. So glad I got that Gardman electric heater on special for £13 a while ago as a backup (on Econ7).

 

Thanks ... if it doesn't go for much I might grab that as a spare, or even to have two in parallel ... would need to buy a regulator for it, and a "Y" connector for the gas pipe, so that will add a few quid.

 

Are these 'Lifestyle' heaters stable standing on those 4 small feet? I wondered whether to get a piece of sheet steel ready to fix it to as I only have a very narrow path between my staging and I'm always knocking into my existing heater.



EDIT: Going back to Amazon to get the pic url I noticed they've put the price up from the £80 I bought it for to £90! Looks like I either got in there just in time, or they realised they'd underpriced it.

 

My 2 Fir Trees (one lasted 20 years and other lasted 15 years) would be far too expensive to replace with new ones now I'm (early) retired, so I've gone for the cheapo option - the 'Lifestyle' one I've got from Amazon (which was almost £33 cheaper than exactly the same one from Two Wests & Elliot).

But as my previous heaters were not thermostatically controlled I might need a bit of guidance setting this one up as temps vary from heater level to staging level and to top shelf level, so I've got plenty of thermometers ready (and trying to get as much useful info in this thread as possible).

 

On mine (not a new one) there is a dial from 1 ... N (not temperature)

I sat in the greenhouse on a cold evening waiting whilst the temperature fell, and fiddling with the knob to try to get it to come on at a suitable point. I'm assuming once it is set that it will reliably maintain a given temperature.

If you have a weather station which logs the temperature (e.g. to then download to computer and analyse) then moving the "Indoor" unit to the greenhouse will record the temperature overnight, and you could perhaps experiemnt with setting it at "2", seeing what temperature it maintained overnight (on a cold-ish night), then repeating with "3" the next night?

Otherwise its just the old Max/Min thermometer and hope that it represents a reasonably constant temperature (if you reset the Max/Min at 10pm and read it at 6am then I think that would represent the range during a heating cycle (again, provided it is a cold-ish night).)

Thermostats set in Degrees would be better, for sure. Hopefully the newer ones have more usable thermostats than my old one, and it will be easier for you .

 

I think I'll leave my Oregon weather station insitu and use my two digital max/min thermometers + my 2 other digital max/min thermometers with second sensors + some soil thermometers to get a decent spread of readings.

But do those Lifestyle heaters easily tip over if knocked? EDIT: Now I've received/assembled it seems very stable.

 

Heater was ordered at 10:45 am yesterday, and was delivered by courier shortly before 10:00 am this morning!

Something appears to be missing from the (otherwise well written) instructions as there's no mention of what appears to be a remote sensor connected to the thermostatic control switch via a single strand copper wire. Does anybody (like Kristen - is this on your heater?) know about this and whether it can/should be detached from the plastic clip (looks as if it's just to hold in place during transit) and placed away from the heater, such as at staging level?

I also cannot find any method of turning off the pilot light other than turning off the gas at the cylinder?





P.S. The themostatic control knob is graduated in deg C from 0 - 25 in 5 deg increments, but I think it says something in the instructions like it's for guidance only.

 

I think those whilst those sort of thermostats can be moved around, they are fragile and best left anchored. Others may disagree though?

The hysteresis would be better if it was at staging level. If you can "plump" it in to be permanent, rather than storing in shed for the summer, then maybe that would be OK.