Heating The Greenhouse

The last 5 or 6 weeks have been pretty cold and wet. Most veggies in the greenhouse are doing fine, although we've lost things like cucumbers - seems it's just too cold for them. I'm sure the veggies would have done much better if the weather had been warmer. The temperature outside is only 7C today and it's not much warmer in the greenhouse.

Lit with one wick and small flame

Today I picked up a parafin greenhouse heater from freecycle. It's in pretty good condition and worked first time.

Parafin heaters are fairly cheap and simple to run. The wick soaks up parafin from the tank at the bottom. Twisting the knob on the front determines how much wick is showing - the more wick showing, the bigger the flame. The flame heats up the chimney and it's the heat from the chimney that warms the greenhouse. We're testing with a small flame, maybe 2in high. 

Parafin heater lit

Parafin heaters apparently also have an advantage over electric heaters - they give off carbon dioxide too, which plants love.

It's probably a bit late to make a huge difference right now, as the weather should warm up soon, but it'll definitely help over the autumn / winter - we want to be 99% self-sufficient in fruit and veg from this summer/autumn onwards.