Heating a greenhouse

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I've decided to go for the paraffin heater method of heating my greenhouse, which is 8 x 10 feet (Its a long way between the house and greenhouse, and I didn't fancy laying loads of armoured cable).

My problem is this: because I'm away from home for 3 days or more each week, I was wondering whether it would be better to get 2 x smaller paraffin heaters, which burn for several days, rather than one bigger heater which would require filling by my wife every day. Would having 2 smaller heaters cause more problems than they would solve, and would they heat the greenhouse adequately? ( I was considering 2 x Parasene "Super-Warm 5" or 1 x Parasene "The Big Red Heater" )
 
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As an avid greenhouse owner these 40 years I'd advise you to reconsider and lay armoured cable - paraffin heaters will be a right pain in the proverbial!

You can't (practically speaking) control a paraffin heater of this sort so it will be on at the same setting day and night unless you fiddle with it. No way of knowing in advance what setting will give you protection to however many degrees of frost. No way of knowing other than experimentation when it will run out of fuel. Everything will stink like mad. It will smoke at least some of the time. The greenhouse will run with condensation. It will cost megabucks to run. Forget it.

If it were me I would temporarily run a long length of armoured cable from a rcb along some reasonably safe route and install a 3kw thermostatically-controlled heater. So much better all round.
 
Hi Robert!

Thanks for your help! To be honest, I'd rather have an electric heater for the convenience for my wife, and the fact that it could be thermostatically contolled is a real plus. I didn't really want to lay cable though, because we only re-did the garden a couple of years ago with paving blocks all near where the cable would need to go. The only other alternative would be to lay it along the line of a fence (currently a 50's wiremesh fence) which we hope to replace in a couple of years. I just didn't want to lay a cable with the risk of having to move it again when we put in the new fence and posts.

You've made a good point about the smoke and smellyness of paraffin-I hadn't really thought it would cause too much of a problem, but like you say, electric would be so much easier-especially when it comes to cleaning the greenhouse!

Thanks again for your help!

Neil
 
Neil - 'cos the greenhouse is a long way from the house you could consider using an overhead cable supported by a catenary; we used to do this occasionally years ago (under the 15th edition regs) - maybe post this in the Electrical Section to see if possible under the new Regs. Anyway, going overhead should be cheaper than underground with armoured.
 
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what about a propane heater with auto ignition / thermostat?
Can get a big bottle of propane for about £40 which would last you a good month or so
 

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