This is how I heat my small greenhouse on a budget

[@lauriivey7801]

I live in south-central Texas ... my small-ish (7x35ft) greenhouse has cinder blocks around the outer edges and brick as a walkway between the beds ... it collects quite a bit of heat on sunny days and releases it in the evening to help warm the air. Works well enough to prevent things from freezing.

[@simonabarnett]

Square pots! Why didn't I think of that for my limited space cactus shed?? Some great ideas there, thanks!

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thank you! You can source those pots from William's Cactus in a range of sizes. Super durable too against sun damage.

[@Cookontherun7391]

I love the idea of having the thermostat. We’re trying to figure out how to heat our greenhouse too. I’m starting to think it’s impossible. Winter can drop to -40c here. 12x12x8 with a 12/12 pitch roof. Our friend got carried away I think. All good ideas for sure. I am putting in 4-5 barrels of water at the north wall; heaters, extra poly. Next year, we will have a better system. Thanks for sharing yours. ❤️🇨🇦

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Sounds like you have all your bases covered! I've just uploaded my latest greenhouse update which explains a few improvements I've made over the past couple of years.

[@emmaraft4854]

Ingenious. Thanks, I have a back wall of a shed and the side wall of the tiny greenhouse and both might benefit from reflective insulation. The area is barely more than a few square yards, so it is easy to give it a go.

[@jamiescountryliving]

Well Done Sir! Thank you so much for sharing this.

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks for watching!

[@vincenzecalzone8666]

Really good video. Great suggestions with the insulation material

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks mate 🙏

[@mermaidlafemme1022]

Great content wonderfull plants and down to earth presentation well done....thanks to your advice I am gonna order the digital thermostat plug via your channel...I have like and subscribed to show support for your channel hugs from Scotland ❤😊

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it! How's this cold spell looking up in Scotland? We've a week of subzero nights here in Yorkshire but everything's looking fine in the greenhouse.

[@davelatimer1269]

Great Job , your cactus look fantastic …

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks so much 😊

[@GardenMyselfHappy]

I'm setting up my first greenhouae at the moment and have agave I would like to move in over winter. Appreciate the tips and insight

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Nice - I love growing agave!

[@Janisg616]

Cheap addition for piece of mind can be one of those wireless thermometers. Base is in the home and thermometer in the greenhouse, if the temperatures rises above or falls below predefined tresholds, base at house will sound alarm, and wake you up. Not all of them have alarm feature, bat many do, need to check before ordring. A weather station is next on the list for my garden.

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Yeah I think automation is the way to go for peace of mind. I now use a sensorpush thermometer so I can keep a regular eye on fluctuating temperatures on the app. It will send a push alert with any high or low temp I've specified.

[@Col1968]

Nice video, I’ve just installed a similar heater and auto switch, just need to sort the insulation now

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks! Did you go with a bar heater? I think I'll be upgraded to larger bubbles in the bubblewrap this year.

[@cactusjoe]

Very nice video and good infos, thanks for sharing!

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thank you, appreciate it 🙏

[@aswanism]

Thank you mate!

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks for watching!

[@441rider]

i am in Canada and just built a slim greenhouse with 2 huge bay windows double pane. I will add bubble wrap in fall great idea. I have a 100w solar panel I will have on a fan and mister when sun gets full on. I am growing citrus and hopefully my coffee cuttings in it.

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Sounds like a great setup! 🙂

[@ashnel7663]

Thank you 😊

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks for watching! 😎👍

[@RisingFromTheAshes97]

Great video and information. A thought I had as you were talking about thermal mass heating is that cacti actually have a very high water content. I wonder if in a small way at least they function as their own little thermal heaters?

[@madelinemacalpine1767]

I like the idea but I dont want to use electricity

[@simonesmit6708]

There is a guy in Michigan that has his greenhouses on 5ft of composting woodchips. And has bags of leaves and grass between layers of plastic on the walls. He grows lemons, figs and other citrus fruits in them. No heating other than compost.

[@irismoles9369]

Thanks I have got a 4x6 greenhouse good tips my greenhouse has no channels for putting the bubble wrap on so that green one might be a good buy for the back wall

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thank you. Yeah the self adhesive stuff has been great. Really easy to measure, cut to size and apply on my own. Thanks for watching 🙏

[@steveelkins52]

I got rid of the greenhouse and just use a couple of coldframes. I close them down and throw an old duvet over in the evening

[@Must_not_say_that]

Your tube heater is a good idea. Have you also considered using heat mats which are very effective and cheap? You can get mats that use only 21W and so could use five or six mats equivalent to your tube heater. You can use both. You can also use a timer to turn off say the tube heater during the day when it is warmer. I use a metal tray on the mats for protection and heat transfer. The twin essentials as you say are having good insulation and micro climates, heating the plants and space around them rather than the whole greenhouse. For sensitive plants you could enclose them and heat just that enclosed space. I have a small greenhouse, slightly larger than yours and I also use floating wicks in small tins, say 250ml, with tissue paper as wicks, using vegetable oil, which is safer and cheaper than paraffin.Used vegetable oil also works fine and can be even cheaper or free. Paraffin is of course very good and you can get those under the car heaters that will last for more than a week on one tank. I find two floating wick holders would raise the temperature by about a degree C. So ten would raise the temperature by 5 degrees C approximately and all depending on the various conditions.It is not so much the size of the flame as the number of flames. You seem to be doing very well and have a good set up. Thank you for sharing your way, both interresting and useful.

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thank you, I appreciate your comment. Heat mats are a good shout because in spring you can also use them for seedling trays. Will look into buying a couple and trying them out!

[@campbelltown1234.]

Nice tips. Thanks 😊

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks for watching! 😄👍

[@FASTBACKKAT]

i just bought a 8x12 green house,wood siding poly windows and roof,,plywood floor, my son brought me 55 gallon drums to paint black to fill with water , and put in the greenhouse,ill have some form of plug in here at first to see how well the barrels do or dont do.. i guess cactus can take low temps, i havealot of palms, ferns banana tree ,geraniums etc to keep alive i have to be a whole lot warmer than what you are ...

[@greatnorthernexotic]

It sounds like your setup has all bases covered. poly windows will had that extra layer that glass doesn't, and the plywood floor will keep humidity down too. I've done an updated video (my latest upload) showing some improvements to my setup, including zoning the greenhouse to reduce the volume needed to keep warm.

[@alessandrogensale8817]

I've just bought the bar heater for my greenhouse, but it has a timer function and when plugged in it doesn't become hot unless you physically turn it on. How did you get round this?

[@greatnorthernexotic]

I have a separate thermostat which plugs into the socket so I can set a minimum temperature for the heater to come on. The product is listed in the video description.

[@krickette5569]

Have you thought of mylar blankets? I've seen people line their small greenhouses with it and then use a higher wattage light bulb. The mylar bounces the heat from the light around.

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Great idea! My only worry would be light levels inside the greenhouse for my cacti but they'd be really useful around the walls to reflect heat back in.

[@damianbrennan49]

Thank you for this. I didn't know about the bubble wrap so I'm going to order that on Amazon. I don't have electricity near my greenhouse, but I do have 100 W solar panel and I'm wondering, would it be enough to run the little heater or even an avian sun lamp? Also, the thermal mass idea is brilliant, but what about in the winter when it freezes wouldn't it split the barrels?

[@greatnorthernexotic]

A low wattage heating bar like mine wouldn't be a problem I suspect, but I guess you'd need a battery system to store the electricity generated. Other people use paraffin heaters but obviously I can't think how you could automate this. As for thermal mass, I think it'd be very extreme to have black barrels of water to freeze even in the deep of winter.

[@damianbrennan49]

I’m in Canada so it does get quite cold, but I’m going to try it anyhow. I have the barrels. I’ll run the heater through a power inverter/ battery and solar panel. If you like I can let you know if it works out. Thank you again for your fabulous video and good luck with the greenhouse. I love it.!

[@catherinedevos7185]

can't find that type of heater here in Canada on amazon.

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Interesting that they're not available. What are your typical winter low temperatures? Are fan heaters more common?

[@gedhuffadine1873]

Is it expensive to run? Love your set up

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks mate. The bar heater is only 100 watt so under current UK energy price cap that works out at less than 3p an hour. I'd estimate less than £20 over this winter as I've had the thermostat set to 5⁰C.

[@sweeneyTodd-de4by]

What a fantastic idea , I would like to do this , is it expensive to run please?

[@greatnorthernexotic]

The low wattage of the heater makes it fairly inexpensive compared to the larger heaters usually used in greenhouses. I worked it out to less than £10 last winter.

[@paulsweeney9342]

I am goin to get a tube heater.does the 2 foot one do a good job. I want a thermostat but im using an outdoor extension so not sure if safe.your set up looks great

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Thank you - the 2 foot bar heat is more than enough for the size of my greenhouse. Anything larger and I'd have to think about how the heat is best dispersed around the space - either a bar heater with a small fan, or a fan heater. On a side note, I definitely think it's worth getting a few quote from electricians to put in a power cable from your house - it wasn't as much as I thought it'd be here.

[@paulsweeney9342]

@@greatnorthernexotic yea im wanting to move house so il hang on. Were in the uk are you? Im on the coast in hartlepool

[@TropicalJungleIreland]

Is it cheap to run ?

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Current UK Energy Price Guarantee says £0.34 per kWh. At that cost, I can run my 80W bar heater for, say, 6 hours overnight for 16p. The plug-in thermostat runs on a battery (ie. to show the digital temperature display). With my current level of insulation, I've managed to keep the inside temperatures at least 5C above outside temps, so in theory the heater should only come on on nights which dip below freezing.

[@scotty2hotty8311]

What’s the condensation like ?👍🌵

[@greatnorthernexotic]

Plenty of condensation between the bubblewrap and glass all winter, but dry in and around the cacti and no issues. Only lost one plant, which was dragonfruit rootstock.

[@scotty2hotty8311]

I’ve been trialling a 2 foot tube heater in my 6x6 and it’s not changing the temp it’s always the same as lowest outside 🥶 I’ve got a 2kw fan heater on order now so should see some better results. If it costs 20 quid a month it’s worth it 🌵

[@pinballwizard6906]

✌️😎

[@bluepenguin369]

Thank you!