Now that fuel prices have risen to such high prices, heating a greenhouse has become an economic hardship. For twenty years we happily burned LP gas for heat and felt we were not only economical but also being kind to the atmosphere. As fuel prices began to increase a few years back, we began to explore new fuels to heat our greenhouses.
Being in a rural county in which logging is the second largest industry after farming, we knew wood was our fuel of choice. It requires some work, but wood costs have been about twenty percent of LP gas cost. The two things we had to get used to was stoking the furnace and getting used to the blue- black column of smoke rising from the nursery. It was hard for us to believe wood was more environmentally friendly than gas, which makes no visible exhaust.
Further research found on the Office for Resource Efficiency website, has proven that wood is better environmentally even if it does look worse. Wood carbon is already here with us where as fossil fuels are adding carbon that has been in deep storage for eons. LP gas is methane that is about twenty five times the greenhouse gas carbon is. Gas escapes to the atmosphere from the well to pilot lights and reeks havoc in the atmosphere. So even though it stinks and our clothes smell like wood smoke, it is the better fuel.
Lastly we had to reconcile our love of trees with the huge piles of wood we burn. We worked out a deal with a local logger where they cut the slash for us. Slash is the limbs and smaller trees that are normally left in the woods, so we feel we are not responsible for cutting trees just for us. This is not a perfect system but it does remind one of the old days. Fuel is cheap, so turn up the heat!
Thanks for sharing your experience with wood heat. I live on an old century farm in MN where we have 40 acres of woods, ready for selective harvesting. The DNR is helping us get ready for this since there hasn’t ever been trees cut down in the forest. He said there would be alot of tops the loggers would leave behind, so I am thinking of ways to use the wood. I would love to have a greenhouse that is “green” and environmentally friendly since I have some education and experience in that area. My girls and I moved here about a year ago and we are still in the process of cleaning up the place which has become a amily effort. We have LP to heat the house, but it would be interesting to see how to convert to wood heat. My ancestors used to have wood and coal burners in the house. We have a cook stove left from the old days where we could burn wood once I get the chimney either cleaned or lined.