Heating a Greenhouse?

Question

I just had built a 7'x8' greenhouse. It has 8mm polycarbonate. The frame is made from the new treated lumber. The door is an insulated door. It has an insulated sliding window.

Has anyone tried storing containers of water in the greenhouse to help with heating costs in the winter? If so, how many gallons of water does it take to keep the greenhouse warm enough at night? I am hoping that some sort of small ceramic heater and the water storing would heat this through the winter. Also, any idea of how much this runs up an electric bill?

Does anyone use a small fan that is run by solar panels? Does it work? Can you tell me what kind of fan and what type of solar panel? Or, is using electricity to power a small fan, just as inexpensive?

I live in Missouri. During the winter, it can get to -10, 0, and often in the teens, twenties, and thirties for the temperature.

If you have used anything that helps with the heating (or cooling) costs, please share what you've done. Thanks!

Answer 1

I grow and start seed for my vegiie plants year riound under lights..I then transplant when thier planting time has come..I start summer veggies inside in the winter...The important thing is to keep the roots warm more so then the above part of the plant..You can buy heat warming mats for them but I use a cheap inexpensive electric blanket underneath mine..I lay mine out on tables then put a thin piece of plastic over them and set my seedlings on them...This way you do not need to pay the expense of heating the whole room thus saving on electric/or gas costs to run a heater..it is uneccessary to heat the whole room..most professional greenhouses use bottom heat as well...This following paragraph is copied from the link below..also a few of my photos on my seedling starting..

Commercial growers have long employed the use of bottom heat to effectively and inexpensively heat their greenhouses. Growers more closely control growing conditions with bottom heat, saving on heating costs by directing heat energy directly to the soil and plant’s roots rather than heating ambient air. Adding heat to the root zone is a proven method for increasing growth, and may be the only way to root cuttings from some species.

http://www.gardenandgreenhouse.net/cms/c...

Answer 2

i have a friend who has big green houses . he always told me propane gas or natural gas was the cheapest. since your green house is small i would think gas would be the way to go. i know he runs the heat on the floor beneath his plants . all i ever seen was big fans at each end of the green houses . good luck.

Answer 3

plants are in heat....ice cold water works for me

mmh or try some light bulbs how hard is that???

Answer 4

I live in CA so I really don't know much about 10 below.  But I do know that electric heat is drying.  I would use propane. Plants do produce some of the heat in the green house.  Here in CA, in my make shift green house, I used Xmas lights to help keep plants warm and candles.  Keep the plants up off the ground. You'll need grow lights and they help too. They do sell rubber heating pads that you can set your plants on to keep roots warm.  Keep plants bunched up together.  That helps also.  If your not using a section of the green house then section it off with plastic so your not havng to keep it warm.  Cardboard is a great insulator on the ground and where it is not preventing light from coming in as  you need the light..just not the cold.