[garddwr]

I am thinking of puting an electric fan heater in my greenhouse and I am researching all aspects of it.

The last frosts here are late April so to make the most of my greenhouse I was thinking of starting seeds off around mid feb.

So do you think it is worth spending on a fan heater and some cables to get a heater in the greenhouse or waiting till April ?

I have a large greenhouse which is split in to 2 so I will definatley bubble wrap the middle and only use one side to reduce heating costs.

So if my sums are correct - a kwh unit is 8p an hour so if I get a 2kw heater and it comes on for 5 hours in a night thats :

16p an hour
90p a night

5hours a night and its needed for a week

that would be £6.30 a week !!

I must of missed something here !

Help !

Thanks

[DD.]

I don't start the bulk of my seeds that need a reasonable amount of heat until early April - and they are mostly flowers!

Veg wise, anything that requires a bit of warmth in February or March, I can start indoors.

Don't be tempted to try and bring plants on too early, in the belief you'll get an earlier crop. Often you can end up with weak, leggy plants, that will fail when you try to keep them going until conditions are OK for planting out.

This is only an example, so shop around - one of these can save you a fait bit of leccy!

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SMET05.html?utm_source=shopping.com

[richyrich7]

I agree with DD. tho must admit to starting my Tom's off early in Feb'. You do seem to get a slightly earlier crop with Tom's  but I'm not sure its that much earlier to be honest.

[John]

If you're going to use an electric heater then get one big enough or it's pointless. Your sum's depend on time which with a thermostatically controlled heater could vary greatly so it's impossible to really predict accurately.

However, I did the figures a while back and a paraffin heater is about 1/3rd of the cost. 8p / KWh seems quite low as well. Most tariffs are more like 11p +

I use a thermostatically controlled electric propagator for seeds in the greenhouse. You're only heating a small area so very cheap to run. We use the paraffin heater to keep the house frost free later in the year if need be.

[garddwr]

Thanks for all your help I think I might re-consider. But dosen't parafin smell ?

And the idea was only to have an electric heater on the frost setting so I'd be safe but with a paraffin you do have to switch it on your self ?

[DD.]

I agree with DD. tho must admit to starting my Tom's off early in Feb'.

Mine go in in February as well. (On my bedside table where I can keep an eye on them!).

[John]

Yes you manually control paraffin heaters so it depends on your time - our heated house is right by the house so not a problem.

Smell, yes there is a smell with paraffin but it won't harm the plants, in fact the extra CO2 is marginally of benefit.

[peapod]

Mine are also started off indoors, on the windowsills. I cant remember if it was here that I saw it, but someone had used a paste table in front of a window in a little used room to start her seeds off,which I would do if I was allowed   Depends on what you want to grow really, as John says, starting them off too early isnt always a good idea. Others that can crop early (like early peas and BBs) can be planted outside in cold weather anyway, but even these may only be a week or two earlier.  Im going to start my chilies and toms earlier this year, (end of feb) but I wont be growing a huge amount of each, so I dont need a large space to keep them until they go in the GH
Bear in mind,this GYO lark is supposed to be cheaper, theres no point running something expensive that may end up costing nearly as much as it is to buy the veg!

Paula

[cawdor2001]

i am trying to keep my pruned chilli/pepper plants alive but despite a paraffin heater in the 'potting shed' last night it still got down to -0.7!!  Hope they survive.

Cawdor

[Greengirl]

I have an electric heater in my 8'x10' greenhouse set on it's  frost free setting - it doesn't work - it doesn't even keep it frost free at the 3rd heating level. It does keep it a degree warmer than outside if it's very cold, but I still cover everything with fleece & use electic soil warming cables in a sand bed for propogation. I agree though, it's not worth starting seeds off too early.