There are many ways to heat your greenhouse and few of them are truly free. Here are some great ways to heat your greenhouse without an electric or gas bill. A good greenhouse temperature is between 75F degrees to 85F degrees. Maintaining this temperature year round can get expensive if you are using gas or electricity to heat and cool your greenhouse.
Important Notes:
Any electrical heat source can be a fire risk.
If you use electric or fuel heat in a chicken coop you should not use flammable bedding. When using and heat that could be a possible fire risk bedding should be play sand and nests should have rubber nesting pads which are not made of straw.
Important Notes:
Any electrical heat source can be a fire risk.
If you use electric or fuel heat in a chicken coop you should not use flammable bedding. When using and heat that could be a possible fire risk bedding should be play sand and nests should have rubber nesting pads which are not made of straw.
Featured Video: Better than a rocket stove greenhouse heat
In this video you will see how leaves are used to produce heat for a medium sized green house. If you measure the temp in a leaf pile you can easily see how decomposing leaves generate heat. Check this out
List of Ways You Can Heat Your Greenhouse-Free
- Reuse plastic bottles and plastic barrels filled with hot water. Place them on the sunny side of your greenhouse (inside). This works to help supplement your main heat source.
- Use compost piles. Putting a compost pile inside your greenhouse can get pretty smelly and possibly toxic. Put your compost outside your green house and make a vent going into your greenhouse.
- Ceramic wall heaters. (Most can be ran on solar generators). Of course there is the initial investment of purchasing ceramic heaters and a solar power generator.
- Heat Lamps:
- Barrel wood stove: I have a friend who has a very large greenhouse and heats it with a barrel wood stove. He made it himself with a wood stove barrel kit. I personally have not used this. He also uses the barrel wood stove that he has channeled into his vent system of his house to generate heat but that will be in another article later on.
- Hot bed greenhouse gardening (See video below)
- Chicken coop heater
Solar powered generators can be used in remote areas where you have no electricity on your property. The size and power capacity of your solar generator and backup batteries determines how much electricity you can produce, store, and use to operate appliances and lights.
Featured Video: Hot Bed GreenHouse Heat. Can Compost Heat A Greenhouse?
She's got some really great ideas for hotbed greenhouse gardening in Zone 4 (very cold can reach temps of -35F), including something she calls "rabbit tea". A must see...
How to Make a Hot Bed For Your GreenHouse Plants in the Winter
Build a box to contain the composting manure and bedding. You can make a box from cinder blocks, bricks or use cardboard boxes.
Fill box with compost made from manure, bedding, and hay
Water the compost
Cover with landscape fabric
Cover the box at night to trap heat
See two of the best printable designs for hotbeds I have used by Penn State Extension are here: https://extension.psu.edu/two-designs-for-low-cost-hot-beds-for-small-scale-production
Fill box with compost made from manure, bedding, and hay
Water the compost
Cover with landscape fabric
Cover the box at night to trap heat
See two of the best printable designs for hotbeds I have used by Penn State Extension are here: https://extension.psu.edu/two-designs-for-low-cost-hot-beds-for-small-scale-production
The larger your greenhouse, the more heat you will need to produce. Some people prefer a small greenhouse but me, I prefer a large greenhouse I can walk into. It is easier to keep cool in the summer months and depending on what you are using for a heat source can also be easy to heat in the winter.