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Just inherited a semi-derelict 12'0" X 8'0" greenhouse. After doing the repairs needed I think a little bit of heat may be in order!
I would anticipate heating it from Feb to end of April (3 months per year) plus any time it was a bit chilly!

Greenhouse is on a lottie, so I can't use electric. It is quite big to heat with paraffin and would be cost prohibitive. Like wise with propane.
I fancy being nice and snug while I am working in it so am toying with a pot bellied stove like the one below.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...2369&rd=1&rd=1

I know I will have extras to source like flue etc but a trip to the local scrapyard should sort that out. I have my own welding gear and engineering experience so can't forsee too many problems! (famous last words!).
Thought I would use scrap wood to give a bit of heat while I am in greenhouse but bank it up with coal for overnight use!
Any ideas/recommendations, especially from stove users would be beneficial!

PS Should be able to make a brew on it as well!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Snadger, it looks a little small to hold enough fuel to last overnight.
Does the vendor have any info in that direction?

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Hello Snadger, I don't want to be too pessimistic here. Lovely wee stove, but I don't think it will burn all night for you. Stoves like that need to be fed and attended, and if it's on your lottie you won't be there to do that. The only thing it would be useful for would be heating the place while you were there to give you a comfortable potting shed. At that point you would be as well with a calor gas heater which would at least be instant.
If you really want heating for your greenhouse, looks as if paraffin or gas are your only real options.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Hi Snadger
I agree with Peter that it looks a bit on the small side for overnight banking of fuel. Does it have any air flow control ? I don't have one outside but we heat our kitchen and hallway with a wood burning stove and it's fairly large - I can close off the air flow valves to stop it burning too quickly and if I then stuff it full of hardwood logs before going to my kip, I can usually rescue some sort of flame from the embers the following morning (at about 6 a.m.).
One wordof warning - do not use "coal chips" in these stoves - I dod - once - left it for ten miniutes, returned to kitchen - flue and stove top were glowing bright red and paint on surround was blistering and kitchen stank for days !!

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday 17th September

Snadger - I have used one of these and agree with others. They are too small to keep in all night. I have woodburners at home and they work great but the pot belly in the workshop needs to be fed every hour or it burns away. You can close the vent to make it last a bit longer but then you have to deal with quite a bit of smoke until the fire dies down. As to the size, the flue pipe on the top plate is about 100 / 150mm diameter so you can estimate the size of the stove in the picture from that.

Machine Mart www.machinemart.co.uk do similar stoves.

Did you see the programme the other day about paying your mortgage off in 2 years? The bloke in question was making designer stoves from old calor gas bottles. Perhaps your welding and recycling skills may be used to create something from there.

Good luck.

PS
Found the web site http://www.hotcreations.co.uk/aboutus.html
but you don't need anything as stylish s this for you greenhouse. If you did you would probably find it was pinched.

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Digger-07

"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right" Henry Ford.

Snadger - my OH has one of these in his workshop and although the stove was cheap, the flue has cost us a bomb! (four times as much as the stove) and its still not working properly. He burns the wood from the woodturning and everything else we put by (cardboard etc.) and he has to keep it fed all the time.

I have just bought a paraffin heater for the greenhouse and am still having to feed that with paraffin every other day. Turning it down is the main problem, I turn it down to a light glow and then it goes out (too far), turn it it up and it burns blooming quickly!

So if you are not able to get to the lottie every day even that might be a problem.

Old Billy on the lottie next to me has one of these stoves part completed he says that he intends bringing to lottie for me to complete! He has done all the hard work apparently and there is just the welding to do!
Will the stove made from the gas bottle stay hot for 24hrs do you think?

PS I used to be a self employed Wrought Iron Smith (Derwentside Metalcraft) for two years but still never managed to pay my mortgage off!!!!
All that time wasted when I could have been making stoves! Ce-la-vi!!!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Most of the lottie holders just use cast iron drainpipe poached from the scrappie for flues!

I have a paraffin heater in my little greenhouse/shed which is one of those cold frame heaters which burns for 14 days on one filling (1/2 Gall)
I've done a few modifications to it and now its got bits of about three different paraffin heaters attached to it. I'm quite pleased with it and the flue I've attached gets so hot you can't touch it (the heat off the small flue heats the air)...massive improvement on the original which was flueless! I have just this evening cadged a spare shower curtain from the OH so I can curtain off the heated area to intensify the heat!

From now on I will be at the lottie most evenings and all weekend as I have just taken on another lottie and greenhouse which is derelict! Starting with a big bonfire after work tomorrow!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Good thinking Peter......I'll drop him a line and ask him!!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I'f your havinga pot bellied stove, I'd think about looking out for a solid fuel boiler & pipes it will spread the heat better around the greenhouse. Maybe you could even use the heat store principle & have the path as a 10ft x 2ft heat store to leach out over night.

Also, line your greenhouse with bubble wrap that will help no end with heat retention & get the 1" bubbles rather than the small ones - you don't loose so much light.

Have you thought about Propane heaters? they are quite efficient to use and you can always have two bottles and an automatic switch over so you won't run out.

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I think it will be hard pushed to burn for 24 hours but I agree that heating pipes would distribute the heat better and keep warm for longer.

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Digger-07

"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right" Henry Ford.

As far as I know, pot bellied stoves don't have a water jacket so I couldn't hook it up to piping. Most of the guys at the lotties have old central heating boilers which have a water jacket and can be piped. Might have to look out for one of these instead?

Just liked the look of the pot bellied job and thought it was quite cheap!


PS Thanks for all your replies!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

They do look lovely Snadger and I like ours in the workshop, but boy when the wind is in the wrong direction (like north, south, east or west) it doesn't half smoke. As the utility room is next door with the washing pulley, our clothes tend to smell a little "smoked".

JA - you could always smoke your own kippers! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

You've just given me another idea for storing my veg.....smoking!!

Cut a trap door in the flue pipe and I could smoke anything, the sky's the limit! I'd have to burn oak or hickory though!

PS Just had a bonfire in the lottie, came in, cast my clothes off to wash, and I still smell like a kipper!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Snadger, this coal burning is not very green or carbon neutral is it.

You'll have to take on another plot to "carbon-offset", plant it with willow and or hazel and coppice it, burn that in your stove and you'll be carbon neutral, laying down as much wood each year as you burn. Second thoughts, take on ten full plots for coppice, that might keep up on a ten year coppice rotation.


Sorry.

__________________
Always thank people who have helped you immediately, as they may not be around to thank later.
Visit my blog at http://podsplot.blogspot.com/
I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/

Coal mining is a thing of the past round our neck of the woods, so I have to do my bit for the small business enterprises and keep a few men in work! Might be simpler to sink my own shaft at the bottom of the lottie, surrounded by coppicing of course!
Anyway, using coal is no different to using electric from a coal fed power station or paraffin/propane/gas which are fossil fuel based?
Burning scrap wood or chipboard is better than using it for landfill!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Snadger, do you need to heat the whole greenhouse? If you insulated with bubble wrap and made a partition with bubblewrap, then a paraffin heater in, say, half of the greenhouse, may be enough.
Jools

Mostly, except they have to scrub the smoke to remove stuff.

Touche, by all means generate mining jobs, bigest waste of resource in the UK ignoring all our coal.

__________________
Always thank people who have helped you immediately, as they may not be around to thank later.
Visit my blog at http://podsplot.blogspot.com/
I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/

I'll send you a foto of Mrs Grief

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/