Heating a greenhouse?

[Candace]

Hypothetically I am building a greenhouse this year, and would like to possibly have it available for use over the winter. I live in cold Canada, so would have to heat it somehow. I am looking for something that is efficient and most important inexpensive. I would like to avoid using electric heat

I am planing on using pvc to build my greenhouse, with a few structural improvements to ensure it can withstand our snow load, I also plan to have an air space between the plastic to give it a great deal of insulation.

I thought of attaching it to the barn somehow, the heat of the animals would provide it with some heat in the winter?

Any greenhouse advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

[grahamhobbs]

Using the heat from the animals sounds a very good idea. Keeping pigs underneath would be as good as central heating. Otherwise if the winters are fairly sunny you could consider a simple solar panel heating a heat sink (eg. large water tank) in or under the greenhouse.

[Veggiesauraus]

do you have storage heaters in canada...they're electric run heaters...well find some old scrapped ones and take the bricks out, these are like lava stones and absorb all the heat of the sun in the day and let it out slowly through the night. If you need to use solar or other forms of heat it will certainly stretch you heat further :)

[Durgan]

Hypothetically I am building a greenhouse this year, and would like to possibly have it available for use over the winter. I live in cold Canada, so would have to heat it somehow. I am looking for something that is efficient and most important inexpensive. I would like to avoid using electric heat

I am planing on using pvc to build my greenhouse, with a few structural improvements to ensure it can withstand our snow load, I also plan to have an air space between the plastic to give it a great deal of insulation.

I thought of attaching it to the barn somehow, the heat of the animals would provide it with some heat in the winter?

Any greenhouse advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

\

I tried various method of heating in a small green house about 8 by 12 in Brampton. Propane was too expensive, coal oil space heater had a strong odor, electricity was very expensive.

Finally I bought a small wood stove ( Home Depot),and placed it in the center of the room. This was easy to install, since the pipes are insulated, and reasonably priced. I put an inline damper on the outlet pipe also. I could stoke and still have sufficient heat for the night. This was by far the most economical. Wood is still cheap in Canada. My lowest temperature average was about minus 10C. About all one can grow economically in cold winter months is greens, but it was a hobby and I enjoyed the experience.

In Brantford, I have a Natural Gas wall heater (6000 BTU), probably highly illegal, and use the barbecue connection for heat when required, but I only use the greenhouse for the months of February to June to get a start on some plants. My small greenhouse in 8 by 8 feet. The heater was purchased in the USA, online.

One can improve the heat efficiency by insulating the bottom three feet or so of the greenhouse. It all depends on what you can afford.But bear in mind in our cold climate with minimum Sun during the Winter months any produce can be expensive per unit.