I have been trying for ages to find a method of using used sunflower cooking oil for heating my greenhouse either on its own or mixing it with say parrafin for instance but to no avail.
There seems to be a few technical challenges one being the ash problem. Seems you would be making a central heating system for your greenhouse. I think the costs of the system are going to blow away the economys of using waste oil. On a commercial scale it could get interesting but not for one man and his small greenhouse.
Thanks for the info blairs, not sure this would work for me. The area where I was thinking of putting the greenhouse can get quite soggy in winter. Will look into it further though as I like idea.
I'm really interested in how others are heating their greenhouses, especially anything thats low cost - i've just bought my first greenhouse and want to keep using it over the winter if possible.
The greenhouse will be on a slab bed and i intend to install a solar heat sink - saw it on "It's not easy being green" a few years ago and the idea stuck with me - http://www.reuk.co.uk/Solar-Greenhouse-Heat-Sink.htm
i'm hoping that i can generate enough electricity in the winter from the solar panel to run a small heater and the switch to the fan option in summer (and maybe even run a small electric propogator).
I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried/been sucessful sing this method.
My low-tech approach is to have lots of 2l plastic pop bottles filled with dark liquid - comfrey feed (I make *lots* of that!) filling all gaps between pots etc around the borders of my GH. They absorb the sun's heat really well and slowly release it at night. It's far from perfect but does help keep the frost out at this time of the year. The bonus is I always have liquid feed very close at hand.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Solar power for electric heating is not going to work with a conventional heater, i was going to say not at all but then i was thinking my heated propagator is a reasonably managable 60 watts and half the time its off. There was a link to a video where someone was heating a shower with compost that might be a possible with a small pump a radiator and a big pile of compost to break down. Actually maybe not a radiator but hose running through a propagator bed... sydney tubes are pretty good but still a bit short of output on a cloudy day. maybe you could convert oil burner boiler to run on waste veg oil and pipe some of that into a greenhouse / conservatory. The plus side being that used veg oil can be aquired from free to 25 cent a litre. A quarter of the cost of regular oil. still a big investment to start with.
It depends on temp. you need. You can use solar vacuum tubes - you can get warm water even if it's cloudy, but problems will begin in summer. Propably you don't want to boil your plants.
If you can pot your plants, then best thing so far is heating film - If you can keep roots in warm then temp. outside can be very low. You can use it under kind of growing table.
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I have been trying for ages to find a method of using used sunflower cooking oil for heating my greenhouse either on its own or mixing it with say parrafin for instance but to no avail.
Anybody got any ideas/info on the subject please
not seen anything affordable for sale, did find this
http://wasteoilheaterforum.com/index.php?topic=72.0
There seems to be a few technical challenges one being the ash problem. Seems you would be making a central heating system for your greenhouse. I think the costs of the system are going to blow away the economys of using waste oil. On a commercial scale it could get interesting but not for one man and his small greenhouse.
Thanks for the info blairs, not sure this would work for me. The area where I was thinking of putting the greenhouse can get quite soggy in winter. Will look into it further though as I like idea.
I'm really interested in how others are heating their greenhouses, especially anything thats low cost - i've just bought my first greenhouse and want to keep using it over the winter if possible.
The greenhouse will be on a slab bed and i intend to install a solar heat sink - saw it on "It's not easy being green" a few years ago and the idea stuck with me - http://www.reuk.co.uk/Solar-Greenhouse-Heat-Sink.htm
i'm hoping that i can generate enough electricity in the winter from the solar panel to run a small heater and the switch to the fan option in summer (and maybe even run a small electric propogator).
I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried/been sucessful sing this method.
Thanks
My low-tech approach is to have lots of 2l plastic pop bottles filled with dark liquid - comfrey feed (I make *lots* of that!) filling all gaps between pots etc around the borders of my GH. They absorb the sun's heat really well and slowly release it at night. It's far from perfect but does help keep the frost out at this time of the year. The bonus is I always have liquid feed very close at hand.
Solar power for electric heating is not going to work with a conventional heater, i was going to say not at all but then i was thinking my heated propagator is a reasonably managable 60 watts and half the time its off. There was a link to a video where someone was heating a shower with compost that might be a possible with a small pump a radiator and a big pile of compost to break down. Actually maybe not a radiator but hose running through a propagator bed... sydney tubes are pretty good but still a bit short of output on a cloudy day. maybe you could convert oil burner boiler to run on waste veg oil and pipe some of that into a greenhouse / conservatory. The plus side being that used veg oil can be aquired from free to 25 cent a litre. A quarter of the cost of regular oil. still a big investment to start with.
It depends on temp. you need. You can use solar vacuum tubes - you can get warm water even if it's cloudy, but problems will begin in summer. Propably you don't want to boil your plants.
If you can pot your plants, then best thing so far is heating film - If you can keep roots in warm then temp. outside can be very low. You can use it under kind of growing table.
One link I found about film http://teplofilm.com/
And if you don't need second half from your greenhouse during winter , then you can divide it using polycarbonate sheet or bubble wrap