Do-it-yourself heated greenhouses. How to heat a greenhouse without gas and electricity in winter?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Almost every summer cottage and vegetable garden of the private sector has a greenhouse. They are used mainly in the spring and summer for growing seedlings and summer heat-loving vegetables. And sooner or later, every greenhouse owner begins to think about its profitability. You can increase its efficiency only when you use it all year round, or when growing very early products, when everything is very expensive on the market and in the store. Now it has become fashionable to create winter gardens and grow greens, radishes, cucumbers for the New Year and flowers for March 8 in the cold season. Of course, it's great to have fresh food from your greenhouse for the holiday in winter, but for this you need to make it heated, because our winters are long and harsh.

Heating a greenhouse means increasing its efficiency

But for early or year-round use of the greenhouse, heating is needed, because outsidesevere frosts in winter, and negative air temperatures are not uncommon in early spring. And then the question arises of which heating to choose, which is personally acceptable for your household plot, because any of them requires a financial investment. Here you need to figure out what the funds will be enough for and which heating will be less expensive to maintain. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the durability and efficiency of the selected type of heating.

Greenhouse heating is the most important part of the microclimate in plant life, as is watering. Consider how it will be, preferably before the start of construction. It is better to do it right away, so as not to redo it later. Consider different methods of heating, the pros and cons of the selected options and choose what is most convenient and least expensive.

How to heat a greenhouse in early spring?

In order to grow seedlings and early summer produce, it is not necessary to use any heating. To do this, it is enough to make greenhouse beds on overripe manure. It is necessary to remove the fertile layer of soil, instead of beds, trenches will turn out. It is advisable to make boards for future warm beds from boards or other improvised materials. Lay a thick layer of overripe manure mixed with straw or peat on the bottom. Pour a fertile layer of soil on top. The manure that rots below will release heat and moisture. Plants planted in high warm beds will feel comfortable.

When it is still cold outside, you can put a second layer of film on the greenhouse. between base layer andan additional air lock is formed, which will also retain heat. The greenhouse should be positioned so that it is in the sun as long as possible. The sun's rays will penetrate through the film or cellular polycarbonate and heat the surface of the earth in the greenhouse. Thus, natural heat will condense in it. This is how you can "naturally" heat the greenhouse, just do not make the roof too high, then it will warm up more. Experience has shown that greenhouses with an arched structure have the highest efficiency in terms of heat retention.

But there are downsides. If you do not have your own manure, then you will have to buy it, and this is now quite an expensive pleasure. In addition, it must be stored in the fall. And make the ridges every spring anew. This is a very labor intensive process. Do-it-yourself heated greenhouses are not easy to make. And in winter, such “heating” will not be enough.

Stove heating

How to heat a greenhouse without gas and electricity? One of these methods is stove heating. They make an ordinary stove, from it they run a chimney horizontally along the walls of the greenhouse. It should gradually rise up and finally be brought out. Thus, the greenhouse will be heated. The firebox must be made so that it opens outside the greenhouse, because it is impossible for soot and smoke to penetrate into it. Then the quality of vegetables will suffer.

You can install a stove with a boiler in which water will be heated, and then it will circulate through pipes that will be laid on the ground along the lengthgreenhouses. Hot water will heat the air.

If the efficiency of such systems can satisfy the user, then the laboriousness of the process is very tiring. The fact is that you need to constantly monitor the temperature, often throw solid fuel. Not everyone can quit their job and be a stoker in their greenhouse all winter. And is it worth it?

When constructing heated greenhouses with your own hands, it should be borne in mind that the film and glass do not hold heat well, and therefore they need to be better heated. Cellular polycarbonate, due to its design, keeps heat well, and therefore heating costs will be less.

Heating with heat generating boilers is also a good idea. Unlike simple stoves, a heat generator with solid fuel should be charged no more than 2 times a day. There are diesel fuel systems. The efficiency of such heating is not the highest.

Gas heating

Gardeners are interested in how to make a heated greenhouse on gas. If it is small, then bottled gas can be used. If the greenhouse has an industrial scale, then you need to take permission and use natural. For gas heating, burners of conventional heating and infrared are used. A conventional water heating system based on AGV is also used. Gas, of course, is profitable because it is cheaper than electricity.

Using such heating with burners, it is necessary to make ventilation, and this already reduces the efficiency of heating. If you do water heating based on gas heating of water, then the system can be fully automated. Without constant human control, the microclimate in the greenhouse will be maintained. The main thing is that it is profitable from a financial point of view, and the costs could soon pay off.

Heating by air heating

How to heat a polycarbonate greenhouse with air heating? This heating can operate on liquid fuel and on electricity. Most often used in large greenhouses. The unit heats the air, which is directly blown out in the center of the greenhouse and circulates through perforated polyethylene sleeves laid out along the length of the building. Thus, the air inside is heated.

Convectors will also fit

You can heat the greenhouse with electric convectors. They are installed on the walls of the structure and on the floor. Convectors heat the air well, they have timers that can be set to a certain temperature, and they will turn on and off themselves. One disadvantage is that they are quite energy-intensive, and electricity is now expensive.

Hot air heating

Much more than you can heat a greenhouse in winter. Some are heated with portable heat guns (fans), heaters. These devices actively blow out hot air, quickly heating the room. The main thing is to arrange them so that they do not dry out or burn the plants. Well, if they are equipped with thermostats. Then you do not need to monitor them constantly, just set the desired temperature that they will maintain.

Heated floors ingreenhouse

A do-it-yourself heated polycarbonate greenhouse can be made with integrated heating. After all, it is necessary to heat not only the air, but also the soil in which plants grow. To do this, some use the design of "warm floors". A sand cushion is laid, a protective mesh is placed on it, then a heating element or cable, then a protective mesh again and a sand cushion on top. Then the soil is poured with a layer of up to 20 cm. It is necessary to set the thermostat so that the soil does not warm up more than 45 degrees, otherwise the roots of the plants may suffer. This method of electric heating is very economical, with high efficiency. From above the greenhouse warms the sun, cellular polycarbonate retains heat. From below, the soil is also warm, and the heat from it rises.

The most efficient heating method

There is another way to heat a polycarbonate greenhouse in winter. These are infrared electric lamps and heaters. These devices are good because they do not dry the air and act like solar energy. The sun's rays, as you know, reaching the surface of the Earth, heat objects and are reflected by heat. There are also lamps and heaters with infrared radiation. If they are placed along the entire length of the greenhouse, under the ceiling, then they will heat the soil, plants, walls, and, reflecting, the heat will accumulate in the room. They are absolutely harmless, with a very high efficiency. Because they give a lot of heat, and energy costs are small at the same time. Such heating can be very easily adjusted to create the desiredmicroclimate in the greenhouse.

Perhaps by far the safest and most profitable method to heat a greenhouse in winter.

It is important not only to heat the greenhouse, but also to save heat

In order for the greenhouse business to be profitable, it is necessary not only to heat the greenhouse well, but also to use all possible means to keep it warm as best as possible.

To do this, it is good to apply all knowledge in a complex. A well chosen place to build a greenhouse, no shade, all day under sunlight. The greenhouse should be located so that the wind does not blow out the heat. Nice warm base. The cover of the greenhouse is better from cellular polycarbonate. There should be no gaps in the structure: in winter, in frost, any draft is fatal.

You can use warm high beds with manure, which will also accumulate heat. You can grow seedlings on racks. It is good to combine the heating of the greenhouse: to increase the temperature of the air and the soil. By the way, for the effect of warm floors, you can use waterproof mats. They are convenient to use in greenhouses with racks, placing heating mats under them. Heat always rises from below, warming the plant trays and the air.

Make heating yourself or order ready-made?

You can not invent a bicycle at all, but ordering a greenhouse, immediately buy a heating system and fully maintain the microclimate. Specialists will deliver the design and install it in the shortest possible time. They will equip it with all the necessary options, which is called "turnkey", and they will also give a guarantee.

Everything, of course,depends on your financial capabilities and desires. Every year, new products appear on the market that will help make the greenhouse pay off all year round. What kind of heating you want to do depends, of course, on how you want to use it: grow something all year round or in early spring and summer.