On Dec 28, 8:03*am, "Existential Angst"
wrote:
"RBM" wrote in message

...







"Pavel314" wrote in message
...
We have a small greenhouse attached to the south side of our home.
It's 14' X 12' with a shed roof tapering from 10' on the house side to
6'. Roughly 1,400 cubic feet. It's a 2x4 frame with double-walled
polycarbonate sheeting, 10mm for the roof and 6mm for the sides. We're
in Maryland, near Baltimore, so it rarely gets below the mid-teens in
the winter.

We heat it with a 220V electric heater, 5,600 watts and 19,110 BTUh
rating. This generally keeps it at the 50 degrees the plants require
but occasionally my wife puts on a 110V supplimental heater on cold
nights.

The power hasn't failed in the winter since we got the greenhouse but
it's probably only a matter of time. I was thinking of getting a
kerosene heater as back-up to the electrical heaters. Home Depot has a
23,000 BTU heater for $129 which seems to fit our needs. Could I use
home heating oil for this or would it be better to stick with pure
kerosene?

I was wondering about a propane heater; would that be more efficient
than kerosene? We have a propane ball/tank for some other applications
which aren't used in the winter.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Paul

For the rare occasions that you may need it, the kero heater is probably
the easiest solution. It may burn on home heating oil, but it would be
really dirty, stick with kero

But if he already has a propane setup, why not use that?
Or just put a bbq grille in there...

Someone recommended a petromax, for home heating oil or kerosene.
petromax.com

Another possibility is to get a backup generator -- might as well power the
house iffin yer going to heat the greenhouse!! *More bucks, tho, but also a
more general solution.
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EA
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We have a 5,500 watt generator to keep the essentials (water pump,
furnace, refrigerator, etc.) going during an outage. The heater for
the greenhouse is 5,000 watts so we don't have enough to power that,
too.

Paul