Is there such a thing?

[Fezinio]

Alison,

I am no expert but i am sure theres a few around here somewhere

But what i have found is a complete mine field. I suppose there always is with new technology.

The one's at B and Q seem quite good but if i recall only produce about 25-50% of the heat/power for the house. But they are around £1600 each (+install).

I suppose you have to way up the pros and cons and seeing that the energy companies are intent in rising prices this has to be the way to go.

Plus its more freindly on the enviroment.

What does seem strange though is if you goto any Mediteranean country solar panels are the norm..


Fezinio

[nick the grief]

One way to do it would be to get hold of a radiator, Paint it matt black (just like the Rolling stones) & put it in a frame with reflective matterial at the back & so perspex in fromn of it.

Then you need to have some sort of heat store ( storage radiator may be) & run the pipe work thru this so the heat is taken out of the water & into the heat store. Hopefully this will leach of thru the night & help keep the temperature up. Ideally I think the heat store would need to be something like the whole of the path of your greenhouse & probably about a foot or so thick.

If you are really interested try looking on the CAT website at their books. as it is far mor complicated than I've just made it look

[Earthbabe]

Shortie the solar panel for the shed and light thing is sold by the organic gardening catalogue (HDRA).

Looked at it myself but i'm rarely at the lottie in the dark.

[JennieAtkinson]

All I would say to you all is - just rememer that B & Q and all the other other companies are selling you something and they will tell you all manners of things about how fantastic their product is. Just look into it into a bit more detail as it may not be as fantastic as you read. Rant over !

[rustylady]

Even in East Africa (and I lived there for 3 months in their summer) solar panels only ever produce background water heat. They're fantastic in theory but you would need a huge bank of panels to produce anything worthwhile. I think B & Q are jumping on the green bandwagon. Before you buy anything check out exactly what their systems will do.

[burnie]

The key thing when low level heat systems are installed in ecological houses is they have fantastic insulation,heating a greenhouse would be like trying to heat your garden.Too much heat loss, I would suggest,as mentioned in other threads,try heating a part of your green house that can have extra insulation.

[Digger-07]

Watch the repeats of the Dick Strawbridge series on BBC 2 at the moment - I think the programme is on Tuesday evenings about 8pm - but check.

He devised a way to recycle heat in the greenhouse using a heat sump, some piping, a computor fan and solar panel. But then he was champion of Scrapheap Challenge.

It's a great programme, even secont time around.