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  • From: Brian Luton <bcluton AT aol.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Heated Starter Houses
  • Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 00:17:47 -0500

Thanks Andy - I appreciate your feedback. 

It's interesting you mentioned the short cycling concerns. I actually looked at some sizing info and 250k btu seems large. I bought the house used, for the frame more than anything, but it had been set up with that heater and I'm considering whether I want to set it up that way.(it may have been connected to a retail building as well though so who knows). Either way not sure I want to go that big.  May look at selling the heater, putting that money towards automating my current houses heating system (radiant type would seem like a great bet) and setting the purchased house up as a tunnel which was the plan in the first place. I always think it would be great to have more greenhouse space until I start considering heating it!

Thanks again...
Brian




On Feb 14, 2014, at 8:59 AM, Andy Fellenz <artisanfarms AT gmail.com> wrote:

I'd be a little leery of the 250K heater, 30X48 house combination.  You might end up short cycling the heater unless you have the thermostat set with a wide differential between the temp the heater starts and the temp when it shuts off.  Propane prices can go crazy in the winter, if you go the propane route, make sure your tank is big enough to store a seasons worth of propane and buy it ahead of time. 

I have smaller houses - 2 17X36 and one 12X27.  I heat the 17X36 houses with 40,000 btu kerosene fired Monitor furnaces.  The 40,000 btu heaters can keep the inside of the house reliably above 60 as long as it doesn't go below 20 for too long.  On real cold nights, I'll put a reddyheater in the house for supplemental heat.  I'll use a little bit more than 300 gallons of Kerosene in the house I start using in February, the second house, which doesn't get plants until mid-March, uses about 200 gallons of kerosene. 

I also use electric propagation mats in the house that I start the plants in to keep the trays at about 70, or whatever the recommended germination temps are. 

If I was starting from scratch, I'd seriously consider something like Tru-Leaf bench heating.  http://www.trueleaf.net/index.php/en/

Andy


On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 8:38 AM, <bcluton AT aol.com> wrote:
Hi Folks,

We heat our current starter house with wood. (20 x 36)  Wood is great but also creates some limitations - not the least of which is lack of sleep!

Anyhow we're exploring a few options for converting to Natural Gas / Propane.  Having not heated this way before I'm trying to gather some general feedback on fuel consumption.

We're in Central New York (zone 5) and our primary heating season will be Mid-March through May.  I'm guessing we'd run the house around 60 - 65.  We're looking at running a 250k btu heater in a 30 x 48 house.  Or a 80k-100kbtu heater in a 20 x 36(to 48) house.

Obviously there are a multitude of variables!  I'm just hoping that folks that have somewhat similar circumstances/set-ups could share their thoughts and/or average fuel consumption patterns, etc.

Thanks so much,

Brian


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