Fresh vegetables from your own garden are rare in the winter months. Aromatic tomatoes, juicy peppers and crunchy salads that you find in the supermarket counter, on the other hand, usually have a long journey behind them. If you heat your greenhouse, you can grow and harvest crops yourself all year round.

Which system is best suited for heating depends primarily on the size of the greenhouse

We would like to explain the following options and their advantages and disadvantages in more detail in the following article:

  • candles
  • Connection to the heating system of a residential building
  • single oil furnace
  • single gas furnace
  • electric oven
  • wood stove
  • solar power

Heat the greenhouse with candles

This variant is very easy to implement and at the same time the cheapest. However, the temperature can only be increased by a few degrees in this way. A small tea light oven, which you can build yourself or buy, has proven useful. This converts the convection heat of the candle into radiant heat. If you set up several of these heating sources, the glass house can be heated by one to four degrees. This is usually enough to keep the greenhouse frost-free.

Connect the greenhouse to the heating system of the house

In terms of running costs, this is probably the cheapest and at the same time most effective option. The hot water generated in the house is routed directly to the radiator in the glass house via a pipe system. However, the installation effort is quite high and can usually only be carried out by a heating expert.

single oil furnace

You can heat the greenhouse yourself with a small stove, fired with fossil fuel oil. It has a combustion chamber and an integrated oil tank that needs to be refilled regularly. Because of the harmful gases produced during combustion, it requires a drain to be installed by a specialist. However, the single oil furnace is no longer up to date in terms of environmental aspects.

single gas furnace

Especially if you use regenerative bio-gas, gas heaters make more ecological sense than a single oil stove. In addition, the efficiency of a gas furnace is higher than that of an oil furnace and significantly fewer exhaust gases are produced during combustion. The gas heating increases the CO2 content inside the glass house, which has a positive effect on plant growth. You can fuel the stove with individual gas cylinders or from a gas tank placed outside the greenhouse.

electric oven

It is obvious to heat the greenhouse with electricity. However, calculated over the entire winter season, this is a very expensive alternative. This is only worthwhile if you want to increase the temperature by a few degrees in late autumn and spring.

wood stove

This option is not recommended as the heat radiated by wood-fired stoves is not well controlled. You also have to add fuel several times a day. A suitable smoke outlet through the side wall or the roof is also essential.

Solar greenhouse heater

This variant is ecologically very compatible and ensures an even temperature in the glass house, but the installation is not exactly cheap. If the solar energy is not enough, you may have to heat with electricity.

tips

To keep frost out, the greenhouse should have good insulation. Translucent bubble wrap, which you attach in several layers, is cheap and effective. The film can be easily removed in spring and reused next winter.

Category:

Garden design