Several left comments or contacted me about putting the greenhouse heater on a timer. That won’t work for several reasons. First, the heater we have in there is propane with a manual igniter.
Heater
It’s 30,000 BTU and with the greenhouse not being insulated, on the few nights when we have single digits, we need the power to heat it. We went with that model heater initially because it will work even if the electricity is off. It has an electric fan, which we use, but it would still work without the fan and would keep plants from freezing if the power was off.
Rinnai makes a heater that has a thermostat and built in timer but it’s three times the cost of the Mr. Heater we bought and, it does not work at all if the electricity is off. I think, even with the high cost, it’s still a better deal than using the other one so much and sucking down so much propane, so we’re ordering the Rinnai heater. We’ll keep the Mr. Heater installed and use it for backup . . if (and it will happen) the electricity is off.
Another reason we having gone with a timer is that I just don’t trust them. If an added timer fails on a sprinkler or lights, it’s not that big of a deal but if a timer fails on a greenhouse heater, everything in it could be lost. We have a remote thermometer in the house that will sound if the greenhouse temp drops below a certain point but we’ve never set it up . . I’m not going out there on an icy night in the middle of the night to see why a heater isn’t working and I’m 100% sure Vince wouldn’t either. 🙂
Our electricity is so expensive and at night we’re totally on purchased power (instead of our own solar power) so electric heat is not an option.
Who would have thought keeping 4 lemon trees and 2 lime trees alive could be so expensive – especially considering how few lemons and limes we get! 🙂
Val says
I am assuming the lemon and lime trees are in pots? Why don’t you bring them inside the garage or under a porch roof?..even that would help on the cold nights.