Pellet stoves for greenhouse.

[nicole80]

Hello,

Recently purchased a property with an detached sun room. The size is about 700-800 sq ft. Half of the structure is insulated roof with several double pane windows. The other half of the structure is poly carbonate panels for the roof and sliding sun room style windows. Its basically a sun room with a greenhouse lean to attached to the southern facing half.

My plan is to overwinter our tropicals and propagate cuttings during the winter with grow lights. Temps would need to stay 65-75

The structure has power and has electric heater id like to use as back up only.

I have been toying with the idea of a pellet stove or furnace for primary heat ,id like to keep the budget under $3k.

We live in the upper Midwest and winters here can go from mild to wild very quickly. Is my plan of keeping the building in the desired temp range doable? If so what are the better choices out there for my application?

Any help is appreciated.

Nicole

 

[DneprDave]

I think that will work. I have a similar set up, an attached enclosed porch that has glass on three sides and an insulated roof and floor, 500 sqft.

I heat it in the winter with an old Whitfield Advantage II and it keeps the temperature around 65 degrees in the winter on the lowest setting. Our winters are not as cold here in the Pacific Northwest as the winters you have, but you could run your stove at a higher setting to compensate.

 

[Bioburner]

With a decent used stove one could do the project for well under a grand. Add some black barrels in the sun with water to help collect some sun energy heat to be radiated back out at night too. Cheap thermal storage.

 

[bogieb]

With a decent used stove one could do the project for well under a grand. Add some black barrels in the sun with water to help collect some sun energy heat to be radiated back out at night too. Cheap thermal storage.

Any mass will help retain heat - there is a definite difference on how much my basement stove runs when I have 3 tons of pellets tacked in the corner near the stove versus <1 ton of pellets.

Just remember that it will be a dryish heat so for tropical you may need to make sure there are plenty of moisture trays in use.

 

[nicole80]

How hot do the chimneys get? Would it be possible to wrap the chimney with copper tubing and circulate water through it to heat thermal retention barrels?

 

[Bioburner]

Not very warm. I can put my hand on so less than 130. I have a test piece of single wall uninsulated stainless pipe on a stove and it according to a laser temp reader on a black spot not much more that 150 and maybe 180 if on high fire startup. The ? comes up frequently by someone trying to squeeze the most out of stove. Remember one needs some heat to keep the condensate going out the exhaust and not pooling in the pipe.
I have thought about making a oven space that the exhaust could go through and heat for some smoking of foods

 

[nicole80]

I seen the wiseway stove had a water heating feature. Do any other bands/models have this?

 

[Bioburner]

Couple of United stoves models had a loop one could install. I have a Crosslink that is a loop and mixing block installed on my Harman. Not very cheap though but heats a basement infloor slab and domestic water very effectively