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Green houses - to heat or not to heat?
26/01/10
Edited by Andy Jowett. To heat or not to heat the green house, that is the question for Gardeners' World expert Adam Pasco.
Writing on his blog, the expert said the need to protect plants through what has been a harsh winter is creating a dilemma - especially as he is turning down the heat in his home to improve energy efficiency and cut CO2 emissions.
To minimise heating use in green houses, he said gardeners can use bubble polythene as insulation - but some heat is still required.
One option is weighing up the cost of using a heating system against the cost of replacing plants lost to the cold.
However, Mr Pasco noted, when some plants have been raised from seed and others would "take an age to grow again", deciding whether to use heating can be more than a purely financial decision.
"Our hobby does require us to both protect tender plants and raise new crops from seed every year, so some heating is an essential requirement, isn't it?
"My dilemma continues," he wrote.
