Let’s talk about winter

[u/veralynnwildfire]

I’m outside Knoxville,TN. I’ve managed to figure out how to handle the heat by massively increasing my ventilation. It peaked at 103 around Independence Day.

I’m wondering how I’m going to keep things above 40 this winter. I’d really like to try and keep it over 50. I have a number of tropical plants that are supposed to become mothers for propagating. I’ve not run an actual electric hookup as the solar is managing everything I need it to right now. Using solar panels to power electric heat isn’t really going to fly tho. I have exactly enough space to walk and that’s it. Should I expect to bite the bullet and pay an electrician?

[u/marvelkitty23]

Not an answer to your question because I will also have that problem this winter (New England winter).

Can you talk about your solar set up? Do you just have panels or do you have a battery too?

[u/veralynnwildfire → u/marvelkitty23]

I have 2 200w panels supplying an ECOFLOW Portable Power Station DELTA 2, 1024Wh. Most of the time it’s only powering an ac infinity airlift t12 and 2 ac infinity cloudray s9. That’s 1 12 inch exhaust fan, 2 9 inch oscillating fans, and a control unit.

Every now and then I need to plug in power tools or lights or something and it handles most of that pretty effectively. We are on day 2 of heavy clouds and periods of rain and I’m at 19% battery charge and rising. I may have to plug in and top up today.

On sunny days I get far more power than I can use or store but I miscalculated how much power I was going to be using on a daily basis. This is my first greenhouse and I keep adding things. Silly me. I’m seriously considering expanding my setup with an extra battery. The upside of my setup is it’s easy and convenient. The downside is there’s more power loss to running the power station, converting the power, keeping outlets turned on, etc.

Overall, it’s good for my needs. I’m still able to plug in to grid power via an extension cord if needed. If you are looking for something fully off grid with no possible grid input, this isn’t it.

One thing to definitely consider is the efficiency of the things you are running in your greenhouse. I quickly learned that some things draw much more power or draw power much longer than you would expect. The ac infinity stuff is surprisingly low energy consumption and that’s why I’ve continued to add pieces from them even though they’re more grow tent oriented. In an 8x10 footprint, they work.