Author Topic: can heating greenhouse help feed plants? (CO2 byproduct of combustion)  (Read 1714 times)

FlyingFoxFruits

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i never thought about the byproducts of burining propane in my greenhouse.

but looks like there could be some benefit from additional CO2 being made in the process of heating with natural gas.

any comments?
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OrganicJim

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Re: can heating greenhouse help feed plants? (CO2 byproduct of combustion)
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2012, 04:44:06 PM »
Adam, Propane gives off CO2 and water vapor which are not harmful in themselves. What you have to make use is that you have enough air movement with fresh air to keep it from damaging plants. Other types of fuel can be a major problem without exhaust stacks. Air movement is critical.

FlyingFoxFruits

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Re: can heating greenhouse help feed plants? (CO2 byproduct of combustion)
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2012, 04:54:44 PM »
now I need some fans!

Thanks Jim,

I'm on it!
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stressbaby

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Re: can heating greenhouse help feed plants? (CO2 byproduct of combustion)
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2012, 07:26:45 PM »
Uh, probably a bad idea.

It is not just air movement.  Any combustion requires ventilation.  You can do it two ways. 

You could use a vented heater.  In this case, the outside air is the source of oxygen for combustion and this outside air source is built into the heater. 

You can use an unvented heater.  In this context, "unvented" is a misnomer; the ventilation is not built into the heater.  You still have to ventilate.  You just do it with a hole in the wall or other deliberate or unintended infiltration.

In the case of the vented heater, the CO2 and water vapor from combustion largely or entirely go out through the ventilation process.  You gain no CO2 or H2O advantage there.

In the case of the unvented heater, the CO2 and water vapor from combustion are dispersed through the greenhouse.  Unfortunately, so are all of the other unwanted byproducts of combustion such as carbon monoxide and ethylene.  You don't want carbon monoxide and ethylene.   :-[

In order for an unvented heater to be operated safely, you have to meet certain passive ventilation requirements.  That is to say, you need a hole in the wall of a certain size, so many feet from the heater.  In this case, as you might guess, you will loose much of the benefit you would gain from the CO2 and H20 combustion byproducts.

Unvented heaters are problematic enough that some states prohibit them.

bangkok

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Re: can heating greenhouse help feed plants? (CO2 byproduct of combustion)
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2012, 10:22:10 AM »
The plants can use the extra CO2 if you can improve the other needs to grow fast like a higher temperature, more nutrition/water and more light. If you do not ventilate the CO2 might go lay on the ground and there it is unusable.

Be sure what the CO2 levels are in the greenhouse because very high levels might take away all the oxygen so that can really surprise you. You won't be the first one that die on that. The gas is odorless.
Also CO is a gas that you better want to be alarmed for (much more dangerous). Like other people said you also need a source of fresh air and that air will be cold probably.

You can use a canary (bird) to see if the gas-levels are not too high, just like they do in the mines. You can use carbonfilters to clean the air.