Greenhouse Heater

Could anyone suggest a reasonable heater for a 8x6 greenhouse bearing in mind there is no electricity so maybe Calor Heated.

 

My hotbox is a gas heater but it needs mains to operate the gas valve. There may be other gas heaters that don't require electricity

 

I'm using a 1.5kw Propane Firtree Proheater that was £110 from Amazon last year, but has now increased in price to £179. A 1.5kw Eden Lifestyle heater is much cheaper. Check out The Greenhouse People for a price and see if you get a money off voucher for signing up to their newsletter.

Check whether the prices include for a regulator and hose, if not compare their prices to GoOutdoors. Get a gas spanner unless the regulator is screwed into the cylinder using a handwheel rather than a nut, but if so watch out for the ones with a domed rubber washer seal as this can get left in the old cylinder when you exchange.

Unless you already have a cylinder, it's cheaper to buy an empty one from ebay for £10 (certainly for Calor), rather than pay much, much more at the gas suppliers. A second £10 cylinder will enable running one to empty before swopping for a full one. A 19kg cylinder lasts a season, but I have a small greenhouse fan heater as a backup. Temps on high level greenhouse staging will be about 3 deg C higher than on low level staging, so by juggling plants around according to their min temp requirements it's possible to save on gas.

Turn off the gas at regulator as soon as you've finished heating, and check your hose hasn't perished over winter when turning on the following spring (especially where it connected to the regulator), or you'll quickly lose a load of expensive gas. I wrap my heater in a couple of heavy duty bags before storing under staging when no longer required to avoid small insects crawling into it and preventing it from working the following spring.

Avoid positioning directly under a roof window fitted with an auto vent (or disable when on) as you can get the vent opening from the heat below causing the heater to turn up, ending up with a fully open vent with the heater on full blast uderneath.

The reason I don't use an electric heater as primary heating source is that we get too many power cuts in our village.

 

Good point on the gas. I buy from a local independent rather than from Calor and its a lot cheaper. They charge £10 deposit and £33 for a replacement cylinder (think its 15kg)

If you buy without a regulator, pm me as I have an unused (propane) one at the side of me that you can have for the cost of postage

 

I've just taken a break from potting up tomatoes to come back indoors to edit my post to add a bit about shopping around for the cheapest gas. And I'd put 'Calor' when I should have said 'Propane'.

I've got 6 x 19kg Propane cylinders, 2 x Calor bought empty from ebay from a local collect, and 2 each from two different suppliers that I've had for years and were free. That enables me to shop around for my gas at the best price.

EDIT: Re-checked mine, 3 x Calor, 1 x Supagas, 1 x Altogas, 1 x Flogas

 

I took a bottle back to our local supplier. It was about 17 years old, bought from the same shop. They honoured the exchange but the bottle was out of proof so would be scrapped.

It was shell gas previously but is now flogas.