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Heating unused greenhouses.
We have always turned the heat up to 60 degrees in our unused greenhouses when a snowstorm is forecast. And we've heated these same greenhouses to about 40 degrees to protect water pipes and pumps. Unfortunately, this is proving to be an expensive practise this winter. I'm wondering what other greenhouse owners do about this situation. We have quonsets and gutterconnects. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Pawelek on -
Jane, I am curious as to when your Spring sales season starts and why you would have empty greenhouses right before the best sales period of the year? Here in S.E. Texas Spring sales usually sky rocket in early March and it has turned out over the years to be the only time of the year customers appear to be really "excited" to buy plants and get into their yards. From October to February each year I am constantly propagating from seed and cuttings all the plants I'll have for sale in Spring and as Winter comes along my greenhouses get fuller and fuller so that they are bursting at the seams with color when Spring arrives. In my case the greenhouses are the most crowded in January and February so that I have the most plants available to sell in Spring. I assume that you only retail and do not produce your own products? As spring sales start to dwindle in early Summer and my stock runs low I then start shutting down greenhouses and turning off the electricity to them for the heat of Summer when sales plummet drastically and all the local "plant tents" start their 75% off sales and give plants away to the public. I know your Spring sales start later further North in Missouri but am curious as to why the greenhouses are not being utilized now to get ready for the only profitable part of the year in Spring for some of us. In my sitaution every square foot of greenhouse not filled now is profit lost when Spring arrives...:)
Michael Pawelek
Pecan Hill Nursery
www.pecanhillnursery.com
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Permalink Reply by robin waldrop sr on -
jane, we put a shutoff and tee at the exit of the well water from the tanks, in the tee we place an air
valve that will accept a nozzle from an air compressor. initially shut the power off to the well, then manually open all boiler drains etc to release the water in the lines. when you feel that most has drained
turn back off all drains etc, take an air compressor to the tee/air nozzle start filling with air and have someone at the farthest point wait a couple of minutes for air to fill the lines then have them open a boiler
drain etc to release what water may be trapped in elbows etc. you will quickly see how well this works
we have been doing this for 20 years and have never had a frozen/ broken pipe problem. as for the well head/tank we have 4 wells, all deep wells and some are constant pressure systems so the tank etc must
be kept above freezing. we simply build a foam box around each one, or some actually have a small injector room included with the well. the foam boxes we keep are simply heated with a 100 watt
light bulb, which we periodically check every couple of weeks. the injector rooms we simply use an electric oil filled heater. these are suggestions that work for us,i can deeply appreciate your concern
for spending money that doesnt need spent. hope this helps you out, robin
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Permalink Reply by Jane Hooker on -
Michael Pawelek said:Jane, I am curious as to when your Spring sales season starts and why you would have empty greenhouses right before the best sales period of the year? Here in S.E. Texas Spring sales usually sky rocket in early March and it has turned out over the years to be the only time of the year customers appear to be really "excited" to buy plants and get into their yards. From October to February each year I am constantly propagating from seed and cuttings all the plants I'll have for sale in Spring and as Winter comes along my greenhouses get fuller and fuller so that they are bursting at the seams with color when Spring arrives. In my case the greenhouses are the most crowded in January and February so that I have the most plants available to sell in Spring. I assume that you only retail and do not produce your own products? As spring sales start to dwindle in early Summer and my stock runs low I then start shutting down greenhouses and turning off the electricity to them for the heat of Summer when sales plummet drastically and all the local "plant tents" start their 75% off sales and give plants away to the public. I know your Spring sales start later further North in Missouri but am curious as to why the greenhouses are not being utilized now to get ready for the only profitable part of the year in Spring for some of us. In my sitaution every square foot of greenhouse not filled now is profit lost when Spring arrives...:)
Michael Pawelek
Pecan Hill Nursery
www.pecanhillnursery.com
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Permalink Reply by Jane Hooker on
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Michael, we are a little behind you in terms of climate. We are opening another greenhouse Feb. 22nd (we have one full now)and then the rest right after that. We used to bring cuttings in earlier but, in response to the high cost of fuel, found we could push the schedule back into February and March. Our biggest sales are usually in April. Not much happens in March. We do grow our own bedding plants are just beginning to produce a lot of plugs.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Hooker on
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robin waldrop sr said:jane, we put a shutoff and tee at the exit of the well water from the tanks, in the tee we place an air
valve that will accept a nozzle from an air compressor. initially shut the power off to the well, then manually open all boiler drains etc to release the water in the lines. when you feel that most has drained
turn back off all drains etc, take an air compressor to the tee/air nozzle start filling with air and have someone at the farthest point wait a couple of minutes for air to fill the lines then have them open a boiler
drain etc to release what water may be trapped in elbows etc. you will quickly see how well this works
we have been doing this for 20 years and have never had a frozen/ broken pipe problem. as for the well head/tank we have 4 wells, all deep wells and some are constant pressure systems so the tank etc must
be kept above freezing. we simply build a foam box around each one, or some actually have a small injector room included with the well. the foam boxes we keep are simply heated with a 100 watt
light bulb, which we periodically check every couple of weeks. the injector rooms we simply use an electric oil filled heater. these are suggestions that work for us,i can deeply appreciate your concern
for spending money that doesnt need spent. hope this helps you out, robin
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Permalink Reply by Jane Hooker on
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Jane Hooker said:robin waldrop sr said:jane, we put a shutoff and tee at the exit of the well water from the tanks, in the tee we place an air
valve that will accept a nozzle from an air compressor. initially shut the power off to the well, then manually open all boiler drains etc to release the water in the lines. when you feel that most has drained
turn back off all drains etc, take an air compressor to the tee/air nozzle start filling with air and have someone at the farthest point wait a couple of minutes for air to fill the lines then have them open a boiler
drain etc to release what water may be trapped in elbows etc. you will quickly see how well this works
we have been doing this for 20 years and have never had a frozen/ broken pipe problem. as for the well head/tank we have 4 wells, all deep wells and some are constant pressure systems so the tank etc must
be kept above freezing. we simply build a foam box around each one, or some actually have a small injector room included with the well. the foam boxes we keep are simply heated with a 100 watt
light bulb, which we periodically check every couple of weeks. the injector rooms we simply use an electric oil filled heater. these are suggestions that work for us,i can deeply appreciate your concern
for spending money that doesnt need spent. hope this helps you out, robin
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Permalink Reply by Jane Hooker on
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Jane Hooker said:robin waldrop sr said:jane, we put a shutoff and tee at the exit of the well water from the tanks, in the tee we place an air
valve that will accept a nozzle from an air compressor. initially shut the power off to the well, then manually open all boiler drains etc to release the water in the lines. when you feel that most has drained
turn back off all drains etc, take an air compressor to the tee/air nozzle start filling with air and have someone at the farthest point wait a couple of minutes for air to fill the lines then have them open a boiler
drain etc to release what water may be trapped in elbows etc. you will quickly see how well this works
we have been doing this for 20 years and have never had a frozen/ broken pipe problem. as for the well head/tank we have 4 wells, all deep wells and some are constant pressure systems so the tank etc must
be kept above freezing. we simply build a foam box around each one, or some actually have a small injector room included with the well. the foam boxes we keep are simply heated with a 100 watt
light bulb, which we periodically check every couple of weeks. the injector rooms we simply use an electric oil filled heater. these are suggestions that work for us,i can deeply appreciate your concern
for spending money that doesnt need spent. hope this helps you out, robin
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Permalink Reply by Jane Hooker on
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Robin, thanks for those really good ideas. I've drained pvc lines and still had some frozen elbows. But the foam or a wooden box around incoming water lines and pumps may be the answer.
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Permalink Reply by Steve on -
Hi Jane,
Well In our retail houses that we open late We use Water standpipes where the water comes in the building. We do run a hose from there to overhead pipes that distribute the water through out the house. When we shut the house down we disconnect that hose and open all the valves on the overhead pipe. The pipe naturally drains towards where we disconnect the hose. We use overhead gas heat in those houses so no pipes to freeze. In our main production house where we do use hydronic heat we heat that house with two outdoor Wood Stoves that pump hot water underground in to the Greenhouse hydronic heat system. We do have gas heat in that house but only as emergency backup. Our wood comes from arborists who bring it to us free of charge. So we only split it and fire our stoves. We have a landscape crew that would normally be layed off that now works all winter long keeping our stoves fed. ( it sure is better that writing that big check to the gas company! ) Also makes Poinsettias profitable!
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Permalink Reply by Eric Rohloff on -
When blowing out lines with air its more about the volume of air you supply not the pressure to get good results. Heat tape works good in spots that have to be left on in unheated areas.
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