Anybody tried using solar heat for greenhouse?

[GreggC]

I have been trying to figure out a way to heat my greenhouse in the winter time, without relying on electricity, because sooner or later, the price of electricity will be prohibitive to heat my greenhouse. The other problem is that in the wintertime it has a tendency to get kind of cold. I am looking to see if it is possible that solar heat is the answer. It is a small greenhouse, 8 X 10, but I thought that maybe I could also use it to reduce other costs in the house. I live in a small home also.

[brooke]

Do you get enough sun to heat a g/h? Here in KY we don't get consistent enough sun winter or summer to utilize a solar system. I can't even get enough sun to run solar lights along my walk consistently.

Have you tried adding additional insulation to your g/h with a pool cover or even bubble insulation? An 8x10 should be easy to wrap totally and eliminate even small air leaks. Also adding the insulation on the bottom portion of the g/h on the inside will cut down on heat losses.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Heating a g/h in our area is expensive :>)

Brooke

[DebsC]

This is a subject I'd love to learn more about. In this area of Arkansas I think we get enough sun to at least heat with solar part of the time.

I hope you'll let us know what you find out. And good luck!

[Bob2741]

Well Its a month later than the post but I do use solar as a helper. I have one homemade passive collector it's' 2X8' It dosent work every day but a lot of times this winter it was 6 -10 degrees and the sun was out the collector was running an internal temp of 157 to 160 Degrees.

I use a small 30 cfm fan (like Computers use) that is turned on by a differental thermostat at 90 degrees

Those days as long as the sun was out my gas furnace was quiet that saves some on the energy bill

Here is the link to the place I got the blueprints the collector will cost 100 to 150. dollars to build I feel I got that back last winter. I'm adding another this year.

Mobile Home Repair- Building an inexpensive solar heating panel

[GreggC]

When I get a chance, I will look at it in detail.