URGENT QUESTION

Where should our Modine furnace be located? The shell of the GH is finished and DH plans on installing it tomorrow...he wanted to know where it went and when I told him to hang it from the ceiling centered over the door he wanted to know why - I DON'T KNOW - THAT'S HOW I'VE ALWAYS SEEN THEM!!! Does anyone know the most engergy efficient method? Your help is appreciated.

Some folks put them close to the floor at the long end of the g-house. The theory is that heat rises upwards.

Some folks, like me, mount theirs up high. I do it that way cus then the direct heat coming out of the heater is over/above the plants. If the heater was down lower then I couldn't put plants at that level in front of the heater for quite a few feet away or it would burn them up or dessicate them.

In a g-house you want to heat the airspace as evenly as possible so having the heater on the ground vs in the air really doesn't make much difference. Learning to use your thermostat is what you will be going by temp-wise.

Personally I'd place your heater in the air just above head height and offset it mid-center. Not sure how big your g-house is but mine is so big I choose to only heat part of it during the winter months. By putting my heater more to the side I can drop curtains (excess plastic) and only heat half or a fourth of the g-house.

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much. He is working on it as I type (at work - he's on "vacation"). We are hoping to get the furnace, exhaust fan, and skin on today and tomorrow. The GH is 30X48X12. Never thought about closing part of it off...hmmmmm...might try that this spring. Start our seedlings in the basement under lights (we have been starting them this way for years). Then as we move one batch to the GH we will start another in the basement. The theory is that we won't have to keep the GH as warm this way. We will see how it goes.

I'll post pictures of the GH as soon as the skin in on. You can see the progress thus far at:

http://www.perennialtreasures.com/greenhouse_construction.htm

Thanks again for your help.

i have one that is similar to a modine(forgot the name, but looks just like it)and it is on a stand just about 6 inches off the floor.....my greenhouse runs north and south and the heater is on the south side.....i put orchids right in front of it, well about 3 feet away, and just off centered of the heater......i dont feel the heat has harmed them in any way because they are blooming, blooming, blooming.....i keep the temp in mine at about 65-70

just my input...btw....my g/h is 12X24

cindy

close to the ground is cool, but also a servicing nightmare. Make sure it is high enough to get under it comfortably for regular maintainance, ie cleaning burners, pilots etc.

If the modine is a blower unit as opposed to a fan unit, you can also attach poly tubing that is punched so the air is distributed the length of the house.... nice feature, because than it doesn't matter where the heater is in relation to the plants.

just a thought:
one thing I wish I'd done when building greenhouses, is before completion, doing EXTENSIVE drainage. Its much harder to do later after poly and landscape fabric are in place.

Also if possible, run the electric to a seperate breaker box in the greenhouse.... makes it much easier than running several lines from your ome breakers. I run 100amps to each greenhouse, makes it easier to wire fans for 220, heaters for 110, etc etc... lil cash now saves you later.

drew