Solar Propagator

[ken parry]

Does anybody know if you can buy a solar propagator for use in the greenhouse.

[mandyballantyne]

Sorry I have never seen them on the sites I have visited, I have seen solar shed lights etc

Someone else may be able to help though.

Good luck and welcome to the vine, Mandy

[Snadger]

I would imagine the problem with using a solar propagator (If you can get such a thing?) is that the main time you would require bottom heat is during the winter when there aint much sun!

[nick the grief]

the problem comes not during the day when there may ( or may not ) be enough sunlight to warm the compost but at night when ther is no sun and the temperature drops. With the fluctuation in soil temp you will get sporadic germination .... nice thought though Ken. Maybe some sort of solar heat store could be used?

Failing that there is always the good old fallback of a parafin lamp & a steel sheet.

[rustylady]

From the reviews I've seen the solar shed lights are c**p. So even if you find a solar heater do some checking before you buy

[ken parry]

Hi Nick,
Re, solar panel, if a solar cell could put a charge into a 12 volt battery then release it into the propagator during the hours of darkness I'm sure this could work,It work on pumps so why not a propagator?

[srodders]

I've looked into this myself, and decided against it, as I don't feel that the sun will give enough stored energy to the cells to run the whole night - at least not in a cost efficient manner.

[nick the grief]

Hi Ken,

The main problem you would have would be power consumption. My propagator is a 150w cable at 240v that works out at 0.625A. The same thing (assuming you could source a 12v one would consume 12.5A so I guess you are in the realms of heavy duty batteries which are expensive or inverters which are inefficient and expensive.

An alternative method would be to use a radiator in a frame insde the greenhouse to capture the heat and then use microbore copper tubing and a large sand box to act as a heat store, this is probably not very efficient either.

I think the best alternative would be a hot bed then you could recycle the whole lot in the garden come the end of spring

[ken parry]

Nick,
Thanks for your advice have kept propagator in house, just sown toms and peppers.
Thanks
ken.

[nick the grief]

No problems Ken, I admit it would be good if there were a reliable sheap alternative but I haven't gome across one yet.

I did wonder about some of the plastic barrels that you can buy & paint them matt black & fill them with water & stand them in the greenhouse to act as a heat store, don;t know how effective they would be.