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Can I have a tropical green house in zone-6a? Costs...
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Posted by njbiology Zone 7(/6b); NJ (My Page) on Fri, Oct 23, 09 at 23:43
| Hi,
I live in zone 6a (will be living in 6a soon, however) and I'd like to build a tropical greenhouse wherein I could keep lizards, tropical fish, and zone 8 or 9 tropical plants.
To do it right, how much would it cost me - say one that is 30 x 30?
And how much would it, annually, cost me in electricity? I suppose that in 6a, where it is possible to go down to -10F it maybe not be at all possible to do this, but instead to have a greenhouse that stays at around 40 F instead?
I'd keep it attached to the house so that one side is completely protected, but this would cut down on some of the entering sunlight.
Thanks,
Steve |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Can I have a tropical green house in zone-6a? Costs...
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- Posted by kudzu9 Zone 8b, WA (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 24, 09 at 13:46
| A decent-looking 30 X 30 greenhouse in your area that would be warm enough to grow tropicals would cost a lot to build and a lot to heat (probably on the order of $1000/month in the dead of winter). It's impossible to answer your questions with any specificity because greenhouse cost and heating cost depends heavily on quality and type of materials. Are you going to have to deal with snow loading? Are you building from scratch? A kit? Contracting for the whole thing? Do you want it to be architectural, commercial, or just quick and dirty? You should do some research and then ask more specific questions. You can look at a lot of different greenhouse kits and styles at www.greenhousemegastore.com, and there is a calculator below that will help figure heating costs. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Calculator
RE: Can I have a tropical green house in zone-6a? Costs...
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| I'm at the junction of zone 7B and 8A. I have a 22x9 ft greenhouse. I an very fortunate that I don't have to heat every night and I almost never heat during the day. My heating costs for about 35 nights was approximately $160. I use kerosene heaters. One heater keeps my gh snug at 60* on nights when the temps don't dip below 25*. Below 25* I use two heaters. Note, I have less than 40 nights when I need to heat. If you are depending on electricity for heat, what is your back-up source. We usually lose electricity when we have sleet and snow. |
RE: Can I have a tropical green house in zone-6a? Costs...
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- Posted by kudzu9 Zone 8b, WA (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 24, 09 at 19:33
| If you are only going to maintain your temps at 40F, it will be cheaper of course to heat the greenhouse, but I wouldn't expect tropicals to be doing much growing at those temps. You should be able to avoid most damage to such plants, however. If you clarify your objectives and expectations, you can get some better answers here. |
RE: Can I have a tropical green house in zone-6a? Costs...
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| Kudzu is in the ballpark. I'm in 6a with a 20 x 23' GH and I keep it at around 55F all winter. I grow guavas, bananas, dragonfruit, jaboticaba, heliconias, starfruits, lychees, etc. It cost me about $1000/year before I learned the best way to winterize and about $500-750/year since I learned to do a better job winterizing. |
RE: Can I have a tropical green house in zone-6a? Costs...
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| I've got a farmtek 20x20 that I heat in the winter. I don't really know how much exactly it costs me because I heat it during the winter and then in January/feb/march other greenhouses come online too and then the usage of LP is way up then. I do know since I put two inflation fans on it and triple layer poly, the furnace doesn't kick on nearly as much. I heat it to 50 degrees minimum. |
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