questions I'm sure y'all have answered before...

...but I've read every thread on the forum back to 2 years ago, and alas, I still have questions. lol

The Little Greenhouse is what I'm looking at. www.littlegreenhouse.com has the 8.5 x 14 at $980 with shipping. www.mellingers.com has it at $780 with free shipping.

I'd need the extra layer of poly to inflate and only the first company has it cut to size at 6mil for that particular gh. $85 shipped. It would be easy not to have to cut it myself. lol

At the first company you can delete out the heater that comes with the kit (a 240v) and get a 120v instead. At the cheaper place you can't do that. Well, I only have 120v sockets. What to do what to do? Is there any way to convert up voltage? I don't think so. I really want the btu's (19110) of the 240v though! argh. I want to keep growing temps in there all winter. Also, I don't want to lay lines and do electrical and stuff if it's complicated. I'd like to work off of extension cords and garden hoses since this would only be 15' away from an outdoor socket and faucet. Any ideas?

120 volt heaters will be super expensive to operate. It's Probably worth wiring a 240 volt outlet for the heater(s).

Angie ,space heaters and extension cords are very dangerous. Get the 240 and I'll come run the line for you,you don't live far from me I wire house all the time so I know what I'm doing.240 is cheaper and safer.
Bruce
P.S, I'd feel bad if you burnt your house down.

here's a heater that might do the trick on cold nights. In 7b you shouldn't have that many...especially if you have the double-wall plastic.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1611791634

Thanks CGG, I'll keep that in mind. How expensive are those tanks and how fast do you go through one?

Eco, do you heat your house with gas/propane? If so, it wouldn't be much to run a line to your ghouse and put in an propane/gas heater. (Also, if for some reason the power ever went out you'd still have heat in there and not lose your plants.)

If you're going w/electric the I agree, get the 220. Is not much money to put in a separate breaker for the g-house, especially if bruce is coming to do it for you!

Hey shoe. :) Gosh I wanted this to be easy, now I'm running a gas line? *knees shake* I want to do it right, but not 'construction crew' right! lol Thanks for the advice though, I haven't made any decisions yet. Heck I haven't even ordered it! :)

angie, Azalea uses a small electric heater, you can get them for 20 at Walmart. If I was using that, I'd have a ground fault plug and no extension cord though. Don't plan on trying to do without heat, you won't make it.

I agree with doing it right and safely. You will be a lot happier in the end. You can concentrate on growing and not worry about getting shocks or burning the place down.
Whole thing will be professinal looking also.
Bernie

I don't know how professional a pvc/poly is going to look! lol :) Beggars can't be choosers, eh? Thanks Bernie and tiG, I've got decisions to make and I appreciate the input.

thats it... Brucedean and I need to start a greenhouse building service for georgia.

angie, I'm personally a fan for propane. electric is expensive and as horseshoe commented, it can be knocked out in a storm. I can personally attest to feeling completly worthless heating a greenhouse all winter to have a cold week in March kill everything while a heater sits idle.

My propane heaters do require electricity however... food for thought.

ouch, yeah that would suck. Especially for you since it's your income. I wonder how long a 17-20 tank would last for though. They cost like $30. Getting the county to do it would be an idea like Kris said...

This message was edited Dec 6, 2003 12:32 PM

As for the gas line, the gas company would come and put that in for you, eco. They'd probably even put in a special tank right next to the greenhouse and not even run a line from your house tank if you asked them too.
As for those 20# tanks, depending on the heater that is running off them, how cold the temp is, etc I really don't think you'd get more than 20 hrs out of them when running them non-stop.

I like propane too, Drew. Mine is 200,000 btu and needs power to run the fan/thermostat so have a generator to use when the power goes out. If you don't have one you really should consider it. It sounds like your greenhouse(s) are at least as big as mine, if not bigger.

they are bigger.... I have a generator available...

i have 5, 200,000 btu heaters, but actually prefer the 75,000 one i have... its an efficient workhorse... reliable.

We have a 210,000 BTU oil fired furnance in each greenhouse. We also have a 5000 watt generator for each one.
The past few years, oil has been the cheapest fuel. Only drawback in a city would be the big old tank you need.
Our big house in winter, 250 gals only lasts 2 weeks!
Bernie

yah, i got a friend that buys military surplus Fuel Oil #1 for about $.15-$.25 a gallon....

wish the supply was steady, I'd change all my heaters to oil.

FWIW, I have a 10x12 PVC and poly GH. I heat it just to keep it above freezing with a small electric utility heater until I have my tender seedlings up and going in February. (A heavy-duty extension cord runs to a GFCI plug a few feet away.) Then I switch to a propane space heater and a 8 gallon (?) tank (it's about twice as tall as the standard tank we use for the gas grill.) I keep the grill tank filled too, as a backup. I only run the propane from bedtime until early morning (yeah, it's a pain to have to slip outside each night and morning to fire it up and turn it off. But I can get away with filling it maybe a half-dozen times (or fewer) until the night temperatures start to level out at near-freezing, then go back to the space heater set to keep the temps near 40 all night. I can't see an appreciable difference in our electricity bill during the months I run the space heater. Does it look professional? No. But it's not a professional GH, and since I'm not sure how long we'll live in this house, I don't have to worry about selling someone else on having a permanent GH structure in the yard - it'll be very easy to knock down if/when we decide to put the house on the market.