Heating Question

[Clark]

For the folks that heat their basements- How do you do it???

We do not have forced hot air. We have baseboard hot water, with a natural gas furnace. Electric heater/fan is sooooo expensive after a month. Basement is unfinished and will stay that way.

I'm fishing for ideas. I'm also considering putting glass doors on grow cabinet and using reptileheater, lamp, or heating pad.
Never heated the basement before, and didn't make out to well w/ plants in basement last winter.

Thank you.

 

[Ernie]

Regardless of what type of heating you choose, if your plants occupy a portion of your basement, I'd recommend sectioning that area off with some sort of barrier. I have seen many basements that would be awesome for orchids, but the owner complains of no temp control (same temp all the time) and low humidity. If you put up even a simple wall and ceiling of plastic sheeting, you'll retain heat and you'll get a temp change as lights come on and off. Humidity will also be more confined and it'll protect your house to some extent too. A step up would be styrofoam insulation. Dry wall/sheet rock will eventually rot from the water/humidity.

Electric is admittedly inefficient to heat with. If you close in your area, you might not need to add heat??? Or, if you need a boost, propane camping heaters put off a small amount of heat. We keep a Coleman ThermoCat heater (or something like that) as a backup that uses 16 oz propane cylinders. It has no open flame and runs for about 12-14 hours on a tank. I like it better than the Mr. Buddy heater we have because the bigger one runs through a tank in about 4-5 hours (but provides more heat obviously). Seems odd, but propane cylinders are about $2.00-2.50 each which might be less than using electric heat???

-Ernie

 

[Ray]

Ernie is right about the need to "wall off" an area. You'll be surprised what an impact that alone will make.

We have oil-fired boilers for hot-water baseboards here, and a neighbor included her furnace in that plant area, capitalizing on the heat from the flue.

 

[Clark]

Thanks guys!

Plastic is king. I found the item below yesterday. Not ready for this now, but next winter my space will have some growing pains.
Anybody have this or something like it?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67443

 

[nikv]

^ ^
Never seen anything like it, but then again, I live in California where they aren't available. Would be nice in the case of an emergency or power failure.

 

[Candace]

I wouldn't put a vent free gas heater in my home(basement included). It's not safe.

 

[Lanmark]

I wouldn't put a vent free gas heater in my home(basement included). It's not safe.

I would agree. Some vent free indoor gas fueled heaters and ethanol-fueled heaters are in fact manufactured to be safe for human use indoors and rated as such by the government, but I'd be afraid of the effects they could have on plants. Some heaters burn so efficiently that all they give off is CO2 and water, but I'd want to be absolutely certain of this before proceeding. Carbon monoxide is deadly, but even if that is not produced, both plants and humans can suffer from other by-products of combustion which can include benzene, nitrogen dioxide, polycyclicaromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds including formaldehyde, plus other chemcials and fine particulates.

 

[Clark]

Mark and Candace- thank you!
The price/size on that unit fit the bill. But the future space would be contained and venting a combustion is favorable.
Have a year to prepare a 11 x 9ft. space in basement, and trying to be a smarter consumer.
Thanks again. Clark and Christine