Heating costs

[Rayc11]

I recently invested in a couple of Smartplugs that can record power consumption for the 2 off 2Kw. heaters in my 22ft. x 8ft. Greenhouse. They are both controlled by a Biogreen electronic Temperature controller set to maintain a minimum temperature of 3°C. This month so far temperature has never dropped below 3.5°C. Power consumed so far this month is 44.77Kw. Unit cost 32.81p. per Kw gives a total cost for the 10 days of the Month of £19.25 (including the Standing Charge which for 10 days £4.57)

[Tina]

Why not just bring them inside to a spare room for the winter, I have my overspill in the office on a multishelf garage rack in front of the window ATM.

Most collections that have come up for sale recently are because of I'll health and/or death .
My collection gives me too much enjoyment to be sold off over the heating bill I knew it would be bad and put money aside over the summer, I'm not sure how I would occupy myself with-out my obsession.
We did twin wall polycarbonate the roofs which makes a difference but ideally done when you put up a new one

[SimonT]

I had my heater set to come on around 4oC last year but switched to 2oC this winter.
This does not seem much of a change, but it made a fair bit of a difference to how often the heater came on.
I don't think my plants noticed.

[MikeT]

Why not just bring them inside to a spare room for the winter

I'd agree with Tina. If plants are dormant, they don't even need light. To keep them dormant, you want the temperature low. If indoors, an unheated room should still be fine for anything apart from maybe some of the Brazilian or Caribbean cacti and Madagascan succulents. Winter growers clearly would need all the light you could manage, and perhaps a little warmth. Though my winter growing Crassulas cope with down to -1C.

[RayW]

A spare bedroom in the loft acts as a third greenhouse in winter, the plants come down again as soon as frost is unlikely, where I live that is usually 1st or 2nd week in April.

[Stuart]

We've gas heating in the house, everything else electric, four greenhouses heated by six 2kw fan heaters to 3C and all electric and gas comes from EDF. After sending a meter reading, total payments have just gone up by 30%, from £100 to £130 a month. I'm quite grateful to the French government for subsidising my greenhouse heating costs.

Stuart

[Eric Williams]

Hi el48 could you please expand your theory of “hottest and coolest parts” I have always rebelled against the theory of keeping heating on low as it cost more to heat up after. Thanks

[el48tel]

Hi el48 could you please expand your theory of “hottest and coolest parts” I have always rebelled against the theory of keeping heating on low as it cost more to heat up after. Thanks

Eric
I've sent you a PM containing some notes
Terry

[andysmart]

I don't have a heated cactus greenhouse, we do have a small geenhouse but don't heat it (the cacti are only allowed to live in when my wife's production of seeds and cuttings have moved on). The few cacti and succulents I have come into the house over the winter - we do have a conservatory which we hold at about 14 degrees for overwintering tender things, but of course this gains from having a wall in common with the house and conservatory glazing rather than greenouse. The potential power soak in that though is the pond for the terrapins which sits at around 21 degrees (they like their warmth), but that's bedded in sand in a railway sleeper framework and over the winter has a double layer of bubble wrap roof over it. We were expecting nightmare levels of billing but it wasn't too bad, though we keep the house thermostat quite low and make the most of sunny days when the PV on the roof can run things like the washing machine.

[Tina]

Hi Ray,
Re your smart plugs- what make do you have, did they have good reviews as I did look at a few of these on amazon & the reviews for accuracy were poor.
Would be useful as I could put them on my sons tropical fish tanks to see how much of the bills are his