Heating a small greenhouse - Cheap simple solution...IMHO

[CanadianLori]

I have two hobby greenhouses. I started with a 6x8 palram.

The first year to try to stave off frost, I decided to try using two lanterns (Dietz Lantern/Cooker GREEN from lehmans.com) I decided to use two because by placing them a few feet apart, I had hoped to create a convection effect. They only raised the temperature in there by 4F so I bought a Cedar Ridge gas heater from Lowes to replace them. It does an excellent job.

I bought my second hobby gh 6x4 and because I was worried about heating it, and I only have one natural gas line outside, I bought a 10k kerosene heater which consumes a gallon of kerosene in about 16 hours. It is major overkill at the moment because at night we are only dropping to around the freezing mark. So I pulled back out the two lanterns, put them in there and got 8F variance. Since I had to order wicks from lehmans, I thought, what the heck, get another lantern and picked it up last friday. Now the temp in there is raised by just over 11F. And they each only use 1 1/2 cups of water for a 15 hour period. Pretty cheap!

When the weather starts getting really bad, I'll switch to the heater because I do want to use up the rest of last year's kerosene and might as well see what it can do on a bitter cold night.

So, if you only need a small temperature boost in a small area, these lamps are absolutely dandy.

I also bought a couple of ecofans from Tractor Supply. Once sits on a lantern and the other on the heater in the bigger house and they use the heat to power themselves. They are made for wood stoves, but heck, heat is heat right?

Hope this helps someone.

 

[CanadianLori]

Update. The three lanterns and having an ecofan sitting on one have raised the temps dramatically.

Outside it is 32.7f inside 58.3

All night on less than a quart of kerosene.

Yippeee!

 

[TobiWallis]

I have two hobby greenhouses. I started with a 6x8 palram.

The first year to try to stave off frost, I decided to try using two lanterns (Dietz Lantern/Cooker GREEN from lehmans.com) I decided to use two because by placing them a few feet apart, I had hoped to create a convection effect. They only raised the temperature in there by 4F so I bought a Cedar Ridge gas heater from Lowes to replace them. It does an excellent job.

I bought my second hobby gh 6x4 and because I was worried about heating it, and I only have one natural gas line outside, I bought a 10k kerosene heater which consumes a gallon of kerosene in about 16 hours. It is major overkill at the moment because at night we are only dropping to around the freezing mark. So I pulled back out the two lanterns, put them in there and got 8F variance. Since I had to order wicks from lehmans, I thought, what the heck, get another lantern and picked it up last friday. Now the temp in there is raised by just over 11F. And they each only use 1 1/2 cups of water for a 15 hour period. Pretty cheap!

When the weather starts getting really bad, I'll switch to the heater because I do want to use up the rest of last year's kerosene and might as well see what it can do on a bitter cold night.

So, if you only need a small temperature boost in a small area, these lamps are absolutely dandy.

I also bought a couple of ecofans from Tractor Supply. Once sits on a lantern and the other on the heater in the bigger house and they use the heat to power themselves. They are made for wood stoves, but heck, heat is heat right?

Hope this helps someone.

Ecofans are brilliant! I use them on the wood burning stoves in the house but I must admit I'd never thought of using them in the greenhouse. That's an inspired idea!

I haven't heated my greenhouse up to now, but your methods are making me think again!