Last winter, it was pretty cold, so in the interest of keeping the elec bill under control, I didn't heat the GH as much. Which meant, I lost about 6 tropical hibiscus and some other plants.
SO!
I just got a 45 watt solar panel setup from Harbor Freight. My husband set it up this morning, took less than an hour. Right now, the battery is charging, should be ready to go by tomorrow. I won't need to use it for heat yet, but I'm ready! Bring on the cold!
Barb
Good for you, Barbie! What kind of heat are you planning?
Depends on how much power the panels supply. I just want to keep it over 50. If I could keep it above 60, I'd love it!
Our Harbor Freight store is a very small footprint and mainly a catalog store...can you provide model # or manufacturer, Please? Sounds like a good solution for temperate climates...thanks.
It's a Chicago Electric Power System product.
The HF name is 45 Watt Solar Panel Kit and the cat # is 90599-0VGA .
Barb
Thank you very much!
Have you found a heater that will run on that wattage?
It should. I'm still charging the battery and since it's overcast, that might take a while....
Even if it only runs the heater for a couple of hours, that should help.
Barb
I'm definitely not an electrical expert, but I have a cheap electric GH heater that has two settings for 1350 watts or 1500 watts. Even if your heater is slightly less wattage than mine, I don't think a 45 watt solar system is going to run it for long enough to do you much good (if it'll even run it at all). I could be wrong, but the math just seems like it would be way off to me.
The idea is that the solar panel will charge up a deep cycle battery enough that the heater can be run off the battery. The 15 watt panel I have is connected to a deep cycle battery and it ran a fan during the day just fine for a couple of months now.
Even if it doesn't work the heater, I can still us it to run the lights and a fan.
We'll see.....
Barb
What a great project. The solar panels seem very expensive here, but perhaps they will come down in price over time. We have limited number of daylight hours during the winter, so I'm not sure if there would be enough sun to charge it. Nov is about 9 hrs, Dec about 8 hrs, Jan about 9 hrs, Feb about 10 hrs. I usually start up the GH at the being of March when we have just over 11 hrs of daylight. On the flip side, June/July is over 16 hours of daylight.
I'll be interested to hear how it works for you--heaters use a lot more energy to run than a fan does so I would definitely have a backup plan for heating just in case it can't keep the heater running for very long. But if it does work that would be great!
I agree. I'm betting I'll have to use an extra heater when it gets below freezing.
Does your solar panel kit come with an inverter to change the 12V dc voltage to ac (household current)? If so, or if you can add a small inexpensive one to your system, you can use a timer to turn the heater on only at, say, 4 a.m. It seems to be the coldest just before dawn.
I have tried 12V dc timers, but they are (a) very expensiv e and (b) hard to use. Or maybe it's just me.
Needless to say, without an inverter you can't run an ac heater anyway. But you knew that, right?
BTW, that's what I am planning to do. I think there are some cheapo inverters in the Harbor Freight catalog, I still need one, too. I have the solar panels, controller, and batteries. But no heater yet, either.
Off topic, but my hubby and I were married in Kure Beach last year. Love it there!
We have a converter that we use on our Land Rover at Christmas when we're in a local parade. It hooks to the battery and has plugs for the lights. Don't know if you can see the lights in this pic, but they're on.
Barb
jlj,
My husband's family has had a house here since the 40's. We moved into the house about 10 years ago and ain't leavin'!
Barb
Lucky you, BB! My boss has a home right on the beach there in Ft Fisher, and he gave us a week there last year in Aug. Since we had to put off our wedding plans due to his back surgery in May, we pulled together a nice, small ceremony there right on the beach -- all within 4 days. Wouldn't change it for the world for a big to-do, either.
Hi BB!
I live in Hampstead about 45 miles or so from where you are. My husband is building a greenhouse and we are trying to decide where to put it in the yard and heating and cooling needs. Have you had a lot of problems with heating or with the high winds we have?
No problem with the high winds because we put hurricane straps at both ends - required by the building codes in Kure Beach. It hasn't been through a big storm, just Ophelia a few years ago that was a cat 1.
I have had problems with heating, but that's mostly because the roof leaks. Once we get that problem solved, it should be fine.
Mine is on the southwest corner of our property. There's a deciduous tree close to it, so the southern end of the GH is shady in the summer, but gets plenty of sun in the winter.
You may have already thought of this, or it may not be an issue for you, but keep in mind the summer and winter changes in the sun's path. I would get more sun in the winter if I had put the GH on the Northwest corner.
Barb
