All through the cold weather, you have to guard the plants in your greenhouse from frost damage and one of the most overlooked pieces of equipment is a decent heating system for your greenhouse. A decent heater for your greenhouse can be picked up relatively cheaply if you look around.
Now dependent on your needs, 'cheap' can still be expensive and you can safely expect to spend less or more depending on the dimensions of your greenhouse. If you only have a smallish area to heat within your greenhouse you can easily pick up a greenhouse heater for the job for less than £30. Though, for a larger and more powerful heater, such as a Bio Green Phoenix, you could be looking close to £200. It's crucially imperative, therefore, that you are certain of what you need for your greenhouse and your plants to ensure you get the correct bit of kit.
Certainly, with the heat loss from a plastic covered greenhouse being so high due to the low insulation value, you'll need to spend a bit of money to replace what is lost to the outside air. A paraffin or electric greenhouse heater is probably the best option to use to replace that lost heat and to sustain the temperature you're looking for. It’s a good idea to try and find a greenhouse heater with a thermostat as part of the package as precisely controlling the temperature in your greenhouse is just as important as replacing the lost heat.
I'd suggest sticking with the electrical or paraffin variants of greenhouse heater and avoid gas heaters, certainly to begin with, due to the cost of purchase. Though, that's just a personal opinion on my part and I certainly won't rule out a gas heater on the basis that it wasn't up for the job (and gas heaters have potentially the cheapest running costs).
The running costs of your greenhouse heater are an important consideration. At the time of writing, the average electricity cost per unit is in the region of 14p which means a 1000w heater will cost about 14p a hour (28p for a 2000w etc). A paraffin heater, though, could cost about double that for the same period. However, the advantage of a paraffin heater is that it retains its heat for a while after being switched off while an electrical heater loses its heat as soon as the off button is pressed.
Myself? I tend to go with paraffin oil heaters as I like the idea of "free" heat when you switch them off - I never had much money available when I started off and this appealed (when shouldn't "free" appeal!) and since then I've just stuck with them - but I'm certainly not ruling out the additional options that are available.
Now dependent on your needs, 'cheap' can still be expensive and you can safely expect to spend less or more depending on the dimensions of your greenhouse. If you only have a smallish area to heat within your greenhouse you can easily pick up a greenhouse heater for the job for less than £30. Though, for a larger and more powerful heater, such as a Bio Green Phoenix, you could be looking close to £200. It's crucially imperative, therefore, that you are certain of what you need for your greenhouse and your plants to ensure you get the correct bit of kit.
Certainly, with the heat loss from a plastic covered greenhouse being so high due to the low insulation value, you'll need to spend a bit of money to replace what is lost to the outside air. A paraffin or electric greenhouse heater is probably the best option to use to replace that lost heat and to sustain the temperature you're looking for. It’s a good idea to try and find a greenhouse heater with a thermostat as part of the package as precisely controlling the temperature in your greenhouse is just as important as replacing the lost heat.
I'd suggest sticking with the electrical or paraffin variants of greenhouse heater and avoid gas heaters, certainly to begin with, due to the cost of purchase. Though, that's just a personal opinion on my part and I certainly won't rule out a gas heater on the basis that it wasn't up for the job (and gas heaters have potentially the cheapest running costs).
The running costs of your greenhouse heater are an important consideration. At the time of writing, the average electricity cost per unit is in the region of 14p which means a 1000w heater will cost about 14p a hour (28p for a 2000w etc). A paraffin heater, though, could cost about double that for the same period. However, the advantage of a paraffin heater is that it retains its heat for a while after being switched off while an electrical heater loses its heat as soon as the off button is pressed.
Myself? I tend to go with paraffin oil heaters as I like the idea of "free" heat when you switch them off - I never had much money available when I started off and this appealed (when shouldn't "free" appeal!) and since then I've just stuck with them - but I'm certainly not ruling out the additional options that are available.