Heat a greenhouse (environmentally friendly please)

[cookknitwine]

I try to grow as organically as possible, but my seedlings would benefit from heat in greenhouse.

I'd rather not use paraffin heaters (fumes smoke etc)
nor gas canisters (ditto)
I could run electricity to greenhouse, but this isn't really self sufficient.

Anyone got any good ideas?

Thank you xx

[ina]

Didn't they use to put muck heaps in greenhouses to benefit from the heat?

[Flo]

You're thinking of the old Victorian glass houses where these was a regular supply of very fresh manure from mainly horses but other stock such as cattle ina. However it's possible to use the system if you have access to the right ingredients for the beds - https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/faqs/h ... vegetables

Not sure how easy it is to do unless you have access to the right materials (friends who keep hens, the odd straw bale, a riding stable ...)

[Green Aura]

Yes, a hot bed works quite nicely - any riding stables nearby will often be glad of someone to take away some of their fresh "hosh" (as my Dad used to call it). Bury it quite deep though so there's no danger of any plant roots touching it until it's been there a good few months and rotted sufficiently.

The other, more technological method is a heat sink. We used a reversed fan, run by a small solar panel, which draws warmer air from the warmest part of the greenhouse down a pipe to a large underground box filled with some sort of heat absorbing material. We used gravel but there are other materials such as ground glass, sand etc that will do the same job. A second small pipe at ground level releases the warm air to the coolest part. If you want to get really techy you can put a battery on the solar panel to store some energy to keep the system running in the dark. We never got that far, heat rises after all, and the temp at ground level never got below 1-2C, even in the really bad winter in 2010 when we were sub zero for several days.

[Odsox]

All the above, plus another tech method is a hot water system, something I've been meaning to do for ages, but not got "around to" yet even though I have all the parts.
Solar panel heating, get an old radiator, paint it matt black, install it somewhere facing south at about 20°slant, pipe it up to an indoor tank and then you will have warm water available to pipe wherever you want, or just use the tank as a radiator.
If the tank is above the black radiator it will work by thermo-syphon so no need of any pumps.

I'm not sure how effective it would be during winter, but on a nice sunny day in March I would expect it to work very well, and it's nice sunny days in March that usually produce cold frosty nights.

Welcome to our forum by the way.

[cookknitwine]

Some great ideas and being rural there are sources of hot bed 'fuel' pretty close, there are two stables in the village so I shall see how I go with collecting 'hosh' (new word to me so of course I giggled!)

I had thought about solar panels linked to heaters and the radiator idea is great; but think I'll start with the manure hot bed first. Presumably I can eventually replace old heating 'fuel' with fresher and move depleted 'heat core' to compost bins and mix in.

And thanks for being welcoming and would wave back if I could get the little man to copy across!

[ina]

Have another wave:

(You have to go into "Full Editor & Preview" for that.)

[Green Aura]

Presumably I can eventually replace old heating 'fuel' with fresher and move depleted 'heat core' to compost bins and mix in.

Yes, once it's finished composting (which produces the heat) you dig it up and place a new layer underneath. Just remember you need a good layer of compost/soil etc over the top to grow in (we used to grow in tubs on top of the soil so there was no chance of burning the roots.)

Dad was happy to use hosh, sheepsh or cowsh.

[ThomasChandler]

Some great ideas and being rural there are sources of hot bed 'fuel' pretty close, there are two stables in the village so I shall see how I go with collecting 'hosh' (new word to me so of course I giggled!)

I had thought about solar panels linked to heaters and the radiator idea is great; but think I'll start with the manure hot bed first. Presumably I can eventually replace old heating 'fuel' with fresher and move depleted 'heat core' to compost bins and mix in.

And thanks for being welcoming and would wave back if I could get the little man to copy across!

*****
I think you are right this is the the perfect idea. I had also thought about solar panels linked to heaters and the radiator .

[MikeWaites]

You're thinking of the old Victorian glass houses where these was a regular supply of very fresh manure from mainly horses but other stock such as cattle ina. However it's possible to use the system if you have access to the right ingredients for the beds - https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/faqs/h ... vegetables

Not sure how easy it is to do unless you have access to Agoc Travel the right materials (friends who keep hens, the odd straw bale, a riding stable ...)

Yes, the old victorian house is the best option for growing plants and crops. My friend also uses this on his farm and he saves a good amount of electricity which is a nice thing. I think everyone should use this.

[Green Aura]

Hi Mike, welcome to Ish.

[LarryAnderson]

Some great ideas and being rural there are sources of hot bed 'fuel' pretty close, there are two stables in the village so I shall see how I go with collecting 'hosh' (new word to me so of course I giggled!)

I had thought about solar panels linked to heaters and the radiator idea is great; but think I'll start with the manure hot bed first. Presumably I can eventually replace old heating 'fuel' with fresher and move depleted 'heat core' to compost bins and mix in.

And thanks for being welcoming and would wave back if I could get the little man to copy across!

*****
I think you are right this is the the perfect idea. I had also thought about solar panels linked to heaters and the radiator .

Yeah, this man is right. It would also be beneficial for nature.

[Viper254]

I'm a bit late to the party, but in the summer I cut down a huge pine tree in my garden. As we didn't have the allotment at the time, we were a bit stuck for space, so I put everything that I could through the wood chipper (small electric one but surprisingly robust) and filled a builder's bag (the type gravel gets craned in) with the chippings, which contained both greenery and the smaller twigs.

I didn't really look at it for about a month but it came to my attention that cats were sitting and sleeping on the bag, which was warm to the touch and continued to be until I eventually decanted it into the car and got rid.

I don't know how much space you have and don't really understand the science behind it, but if you cut something down in early November and bagged it in your greenhouse, it might take the edge off the first part of winter.

It may just be pine specific - I don't really know!