Hi all,

The greenhouse project continues to go forward...slowly. Both in-ground inspections passed this week (gas and electric). The gas company may finish by the end of the week and hopefully we will also be ready for the 2nd electric inspection of 3. I never knew this would be so complicated.
So my worse nightmare going into the greenhouse and seeing everything frozen. I think I have found a few alarm systems that will work and will keep you posted on it as I start using them.
My second worse nightmare is waking up to a alarm in the middle of the night and not being able to get the heat going.
So here is the challenge. What do you use as back up heat?
Mine is natural gas with electric starter so will go down in a long power failure.
Looking for heat source that would not be too expensive and keep the greenhouse above freezing until help arrives or power is back on.

Thanks for your help.
Sharon

Hi Sharon when I was North depends on your space these black 55 gal plastic drums filled with water will hold heat at night  The green house will heat the water up during the day. 2nd and the main back up I had was small propane heaters turn way down plus they omit Co2 which plants love.

   Sharon,

  There are some pretty inexpensive routes that you could take.

  The cheapest is to buy an inexpensive inverter and use your car to power the A/C portion of your greenhouse heater when the electricity goes out.  http://www.ush2.com/11012012.htm  
A cheap little alarm can be used to alert you that the power is out, and you just use the extension cord from your car to power the heater.

   For my aquaponics system I used a couple of deep-cycle batteries for backing-up the A/C.  These you could keep on an intelligent trickle-charger all of the time, or rigged to a solar panel.  Likewise to the system above, this replaces the A/C lines to power the heater in your greenhouse.

Lastly, a couple of space heaters can be plumbed into the natural gas for back-up.  They use a piezo push-button ignition, and do not require any A/C at all.

Blue

Those propane operated heaters work great. I've listed four different ones below on ebay. Good luck!




(I own one of these)     http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mr-Heater-Big-Buddy-Indoor-Outdoor-Propane-Heater-18-000-BTU-/111851352359?hash=item1a0adc3127:g:h24AAOSw5IJWcS~C

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermablaster-15-000-BTU-Portable-Propane-Infrared-Compact-Heater-/391311767635?hash=item5b1bffb853:g:47kAAOSwfZ1WaZHS

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dyna-Glo-DELUX-Portable-Propane-LP-Forced-Air-Heater-125-000-BTU-NEW-/131400259825?hash=item1e9810d8f1:g:qWEAAOSw8d9UsTSS

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Avenger-Tank-Top-Propane-Heater-Single-Burner-15-000-BTU-Model-FBDTP15-/172021203808?hash=item280d434360:g:wq4AAOSwlV9WSuvV

Thanks for the replies.  I like the battery op. for the heater and the plumbed space heater for the natural gas since one of my fears is what if the heater itself goes down.  I am also looking into some kerosene heaters rated for indoor use since this would really only be back up.  I do not have a phone line in the greenhouse for an alarm system. 

Depending on what all is in your greenhouse, and if you happen to be a poultry raising kind of person, I would wholeheartedly recommend shutting your chickens in at night. Chickens and rabbits both make great space heaters, but rabbits are a bit harder to catch in the mornings.