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Free Greenhouse Heating
Find out how to heat your greenhouse the environmentally friendly way
Free Greenhouse Heating
greenhouse | buildingKeeping a greenhouse warm in the night and not too hot in the day can be expensive. There are a wide range of boilers and heaters, fans and extractors that will do the job, but they will use up electricity and cost a lot of money. Therefore this article will explain ways in which you can heat (and cool) your greenhouse for free.
Greenhouses are very efficient at absorbing heat from the sun during the day. Unfortunately they are then equally efficient at losing that heat at night which risks harming delicate crops. Therefore, if for example you use an electric heater to heat your greenhouse, up to 80% of the electricity will be used at night. The solution to the problem is to find a way to retain the sun's heat during the day so that it is there to be released at night to keep the greenhouse warm.
A heat sink is anything into which heat can sink and be stored for later use. A large barrel of water for example would warm up during the day, and then release that heat into the atmosphere of the greenhouse during the night keeping it warm. Large rocks, concrete blocks, and bricks can also be used as a passive heat sink for your greenhouse. The obvious disadvantage of this system is that lot of greenhouse space is lost.
If a more efficient system is required then an active system can be developed in which hot air from the top of the greenhouse is pumped into a storage area filled with a thermal mass (e.g. barrels of water etc again), and that warm air is then left to rise back through the greenhouse during the night. The fan or pump in this system can be powered by a PV solar panel.
Whatever is being used as a heat sink should be painted in a black or very dark non-reflective paint to maximise its heat absorption. To maximise efficiency the north facing wall of the greenhouse should be insulated using specialst greenhouse curtains or something as simple as recycled bubble wrap.
NEW - Click here to visit our Greenhouse Directory with details of suppliers of greenhouses and related accessories including greenhouse heaters.
Article Published: 12:29, 9th Jul 2008
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