What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?

I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science
or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me
and I'll send it to you.

Thanks,
Trace

Zone 5/Ohio

Trace Curry wrote:

What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?

I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science
or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me
and I'll send it to you.

Thanks,
Trace

Zone 5/Ohio


Plastic soda bottles. That assumes that the water will pick up enough
heat during the day.

--
Susan N.
---------------------------------------------
Click this site daily to help fund mammograms
for women who cannot afford them.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Trace Curry wrote:

What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?

I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science
or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me
and I'll send it to you.

Thanks,
Trace

Zone 5/Ohio

Milk jugs full of manure tea. The dark liquid absorbs more heat during
the day then plain water. I don't use cold frames, but with a square of
milk jugs around each plant, I grow lettuce otherwise out in the open in
temps down to 15F. And in the spring, I have lots of well aged manure
tea for fertilizer.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very
easy to govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over
expenditures on armaments and military equipment. It pays without
discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the
syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors
are an abundant source of gain."
Anatole France

How much room do you have? If you have a green house, a row of 55 gallon
drums along the south wall, painted black or dark green will do very well.
In addition they are just about the right height to cover with wood and use
it as a work bench/seed tray shelf. If you have lots of room, put another
row on the north side and do the same.

Otherwise use two liter, or one gallon, or five gallon plastic
bottles/jugs/buckets as mentioned before. You can get 5 gallon buckets free
or for almost nothing at bakerys, or other companies that sell a service in
which they use a lot of chemicals that come in five/six gallon buckets. Be
careful of what kind of chemicals were contained in the buckets.

Good luck. Dwayne



"Trace Curry" wrote in message
...
What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?

I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science
or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me
and I'll send it to you.

Thanks,
Trace

Zone 5/Ohio

Trace Curry wrote in message ...
What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?


The heating cable will give you a few tens of watts, and that is just
not enough. Black balloons is a very good idea (they will absorb of
order 100W on a sunny winter day, and give it back at night), but keep
in mind that they will probably only keep the temperature above 27 or
28 degrees. They give back heat through conductivity, which is
proportional to the temperature difference, so they give little heat
until there is a difference of several degrees between water and air.
27 degrees is fine for lettuce or cabbage seedlings, after a bit of
pre-hardening. For the tomatoes, you may have to wait.

I have a cold frame that I put a row of narrow cement blocks against the back,
and put plastic bottles. I have mostly 1 gallon size. I used red and green food
coloring in water in the bottles. This makes a sort of black, which will absorb
the heat better. I have raised lettuce in it all winter, and we have had 3
degrees here several times. I also will use it for hardening off plants before
they go in the garden.

susan

Trace Curry wrote:

What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?

I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science
or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me
and I'll send it to you.

Thanks,
Trace

Zone 5/Ohio

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:40:37 -0500, Trace Curry
wrote:

What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be
doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15
degrees?

I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science
or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me
and I'll send it to you.

Thanks,
Trace

Zone 5/Ohio

The cables are intended to warm the soil rather than the air. My
experience (though in a much warmer climate) has been that I needed to
insulate the area heated by the soil cable. I was heating a
3'x6'x6"deep "tray" of sand and peat on which my flats of sown seeds
were placed. It was elevated and so needed insulation on the bottom
and sides.

I keep 8-10 large (26"H x 26"Dia) faux terra cotta pots (plastic) full
of water in my cool/cold greenhouse. They are open on top but covered
with plastic or old greenhouse roofing (Tuffak). Half of them are
filled from runoff from the roof of the greenhouse, the others from a
hose. I use the water in the winter to water seedlings as it is
warmer than the tap water from the hose and contains less chlorine.

Since you have power, there is another "Rube Goldberg" setup that I
have used but never perfected. It consists of an aquarium heater
(900W as I recall), a 10 Gallon insulated metal container (because
the aquarium heater will melt plastic if it touches it), a small
aquarium circulating pump and some copper tubing. The tubing was run
under my seedlings, and the heater (it is controlled by a built-in
thermostat) kept the water at a set point. I think that it can work,
but in my experience the thermostat should be in the soil near the
roots/seeds and the flow should be balanced such that the heat of the
water is not largely dissapated at the "front end".

I have a small homemade greenhouse (hoophouse) heated with two liter
plastic Pepsi bottles. The difference in mine and everybody else's
seems to be the fact that I fill the bottles with hot water at night
and put them inside the cold frame. Since I live in South Carolina, I
don't have to do this for long, and it doesn't seem to be that much
trouble. Six hot water filled bottles keeps my little greenhouse
plenty warm enough.

Never lost a plant yet doing this, and I don't have to worry that the
water didn't get warm enough.


Casey



On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 12:27:35 -0600, B.Server wrote:

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:40:37 -0500, Trace Curry
wrote:

What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?

Where in SC are you?

--
Sam
Along the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach SC
"Sasha" wrote in message
...
I have a small homemade greenhouse (hoophouse) heated with two liter
plastic Pepsi bottles. The difference in mine and everybody else's
seems to be the fact that I fill the bottles with hot water at night
and put them inside the cold frame. Since I live in South Carolina, I
don't have to do this for long, and it doesn't seem to be that much
trouble. Six hot water filled bottles keeps my little greenhouse
plenty warm enough.

Never lost a plant yet doing this, and I don't have to worry that the
water didn't get warm enough.


Casey



On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 12:27:35 -0600, B.Server wrote:

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:40:37 -0500, Trace Curry
wrote:

What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing?

I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at
people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course.

Any better ideas?