Hydronic Root warmers

[PeggyOGrows]

Hey All, Looking for some input here.
I have a 12'x24' greenhouse, made of old windows and corrugated plastic panels. My plan is to start plants in March, supplementing light until May or so, when the natural light cycle will take care of them. My main concern is heat, especially considering the greenhouse has little R value, and will lose heat rapidly at night.
My potential solution would be a radiant floor type heat system. I have 100's of feet of 1.5" black irrigation pipe that I plan to run along the rafters and the back wall of the greenhouse. The pipe loop would continue down into the floor of the greenhouse, as well as throughout the raised beds. The water in the pipe would be solar heated, and after a few hours, and I would cycle the water with a timed pump.
On paper, I believe this will work. I'm curios to know if anyone out there has experimented with anything like this.
I'm also open to different ways to heat the greenhouse in the spring/fall months.
Thanks for any/all help.

 

[HashGirl]

The only person here that I know built his own greenhouse is @Camaro1691. So maybe he can provide some input.

 

[HashGirl]

But if he doesn't respond, you could try posting your question in the DIY forum or in the Grow Room Setup forum.

 

[Camaro1691]

Hey All, Looking for some input here.
I have a 12'x24' greenhouse, made of old windows and corrugated plastic panels. My plan is to start plants in March, supplementing light until May or so, when the natural light cycle will take care of them. My main concern is heat, especially considering the greenhouse has little R value, and will lose heat rapidly at night.
My potential solution would be a radiant floor type heat system. I have 100's of feet of 1.5" black irrigation pipe that I plan to run along the rafters and the back wall of the greenhouse. The pipe loop would continue down into the floor of the greenhouse, as well as throughout the raised beds. The water in the pipe would be solar heated, and after a few hours, and I would cycle the water with a timed pump.
On paper, I believe this will work. I'm curios to know if anyone out there has experimented with anything like this.
I'm also open to different ways to heat the greenhouse in the spring/fall months.
Thanks for any/all help.

I personally haven’t played with this in a greenhouse but I would probably think in a direction of storing heat in water depending on how cold your night temps get, you could plumb your pipe into a modine style heater that has a fan on the back side, I would even go to the extent of a old car radiator, possibly even 2 side by side with electric fans pushing the heat thru them for a GH that size, I’ve debated an old mobile home furnace for mine being just slightly smaller than yours at 10’x20’x14’, however using hydro heating could work well in a radiator style, radiant I would be concerned about losing too much heat into the ground too fast before having the chance to heat the air, although I could be wrong.. definitely something to look into though as water holds more heating capacity than air, I’ve been considering a large water storage tank with multiple zone valves for when I move into my next home for this reason

 

[013]

don’t know how well water filled plastic irrigation tubing looped in and out of the ground will distribute heat…..


there are YouTube videos of folks installing rocket stoves / rocket mass heaters where the exhaust travels thru metal pipes that are laid in gravel beds underneath the greenhouse floor.….