Solar Power In Our Greenhouse | An Off Grid Winter Garden Greenhouse in Canada For Year Round Food
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- This is a huge step for step us towards our self sufficient goals. A four season, year round greenhouse heated with wood and using solar power to run fans, lights and more. The solar powered greenhouse ventilation and circulation fans with thermostat are key to moving air inside, and removing hot air from the greenhouse if it gets too hot. A winter garden in the north might be considered impossible by some folks. We have several months of the year that we see very little sun. Being able to run just a couple of solar powered LED grow lights off of solar power in our greenhouse may just give us the extra bump we need to keep growing fresh produce year round. We are currently running two 100 watt solar panels to charge two 60 amp hour deep cycle marine batteries in the greenhouse.
Heating a greenhouse is not a simple task. There are many options to explore. We've experimented with how to heat a greenhouse in the past. Heating our greenhouse with compost. Thermal mass using large barrels and bins full of water. We're now moving on to heating our winter greenhouse with wood. In the future we'll add both compost heat and thermal mass heat back into the mix, but now that we have a woodstove installed in the greenhouse, we can get to work on some early crops, growing food in the winter in a greenhouse. The wood stove is rated for about 10 times the size of our greenhouse.
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It's so simple and I find it amazing. I was looking for a way to heat a greenhouse in energy efficient way. Thank you for your video
Best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪 to you and your family and subscriber's. Cool video. Hope you have a wonderful growing season
Great video presentation. No b.s. just straight to it. 👍 All good ideas now days ! Stay safe. ☺👍
Thanks Swann!
Always looking for Canadian Channels I'm glad I found you Cheers and I subbed.
Welcome!
I really like how you described the solar set up in steps and explained each one to us. You definitely gave me a bit more courage to try this in my greenhouse... Thank you for taking the time to share this info.
Glad it was helpful!
very cool.. good for you and thanks for sharing
Love the Old school radio ...no internet needed...hahaaa!!
I'm gona set one up to help run led grow lights in the winter. I'll use terracotta pots to heat it. But I do live in the south, so heating won't be too much of an issue.
Looking great guys! A greenhouse is on my agenda over the next couple years!! I cant wait to see how it all works out for you!
Start planning now! This is 3 ‘homesteads’ and 5 or 6 years in the making for us. There have been failures along the way.
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing. I just built my first greenhouse so this was super helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
nicely done....
Getting ready for 12v power in my 18” tiny house on wheels. Thanks for show me how simple it can be.
Glad to help
Awesome job 😀 Can't wait to see your plants in there!
Thanks you two. We also have a high tunnel in the works inspired by Simple Living Alaska! Already started unloading to manure into it!
I have the same sensor. Works great. Have a great weekend
You too right! Hopefully the sun shines for ya!
Excellent setup 👍, thanks
Glad you like it!
Thank you for sharing this!! I'd like to put in a greenhouse sometime over the next couple of years and was trying to figure out how I'd get it heated enough to early start plants in there over winter.
The wood heat is awesome! It’s a bit of work, but that’s the payoff for some tasty fresh produce!
Awesome guys!
Thanks Tim!
We have a small green house . This was interessting to see how you were doing this. New friend Ruthie
Hey Ruthie! Thanks for swinging by the Wilderstead channel!
You have made me dream of a little greenhouse like this!
Such a nice thing for us to have now! We dreamed about it for a long time!
This tip would help me as i have my first greenhouse of the season. Thanks.
Glad to help
Great job Dave
Thanks Mum! I will be growing some lavender bushes in there for ya!
Awesome way to get Solar Power for your Greenhouse. Very innovative way of growing your greens. Like 54. Watched till the end. New here
Welcome to the Wilderstead!
Great set up buddy, seems to be all working well. Looking forward to you folks getting some plants going:)))
That makes two of us!!
Creating quite the hi-tech greenhouse!!! :)
Gotta have some toys to play with in there!
I can't wait to have a greenhouse set up like yours with a little wood stove in there.
You can do it!
That set up looks sweet Dave. Especially your little radio for drowning out sound.😆
BEAVER!!!!! lol! Thanks Jim!
Good ole Canadian Tire!
You know it! Been running that setup for several year now in many different applications.
great content & flow. well done. i sub'd ;)
Great solar setup! I have a tiny micro-solar thing (motorcycle sized batteries) for lights in the coop, etc.... bu your setup is exactly what I'm picturing in my future. Not super complicated, but very effective. Love it.
Thanks Dave! And you are right, it doesn’t need to be complicated at all for such a simple, light weight power demand in there. Should have a couple of lights set up in there next week.
But will your radio pickup the sultry sounds of Guy in a Beaver Coat like Dave' and Amanda's? LOL!
Haha haha!!! That is one special radio I tell ya!
@@AlmostHomestead "BEAVER!"
Great set up. This is really coming together 👍👍
Thanks G!! It's been a ton of work, but we are starting to see a useable space in there now. Can't wait for the food to start!
Wilderstead
I’m excited to see what you do in there. I should have mine up and running very very soon as well.
It seems like we’ve both been working on our greenhouses for years 😂
Wilderstead
Haha. True but it looks like we are both just a few days out from being done. No more playing games, time to git er dun 😁👍
Farmer G you got that right buddy!
Lmao at radio noise cancelling device. Enjoyed our visit. We were already subscribed but were reminded by your new to be neighbors "tomorrowaday farms " to check your vlog👍🇨🇦
Hahahaha! Thanks for stopping by!
Nice! I would suggest getting a 12v thermal switch and fan though. You lose a % of power when inverting and 12v components are pretty cheap.
Cool wood burning stove 👍
Thanks! Its a great little unit.
@@Wilderstead So the stove is the heat source, and the solar panels are basically to run the fan?
Was wondering how to heat my 4' X 4' cold frame, with solar power, (for night time heat in the winter.) Zone 5 New England.
I forgot that you had asked about music. When you turned on the radio I was thinking, what the hell is that awful music he's listening to? LOL! You got me. That's a nice looking little solar setup. This video answered a few questions that I had. I have an inverter and I was going to pick up a deep cycle battery for charging things when we have long outages and possibly run a fan in the greenhouse in the summer. I didn't know what a charge controller was but the name says it all. Haha! I'm also hinking about picking up Harbor Freight Solar Panels but not sure yet. Depends on what kind of rats are living on the hill this summer.
Beaver! LOL!! We actually have one of the harbour freight setups here. We haven’t run it for a while, but it was the first solar setup we bought when we were living in CT. For small applications, it is perfect. We actually ran a 40 inch tv and sound bar off it for quite a while. Then, in Manitoba the same system powered our chicken coop. I can’t remember if it’s in any of our older videos.
@@Wilderstead Cool. I figured it might be a good starter setup to get my feet wet.
Cool
Pretty warm in there actually Virginia! 😂
@@Wilderstead lol
Great kid very explained 😂😊
Thanks 😅
Bwahahaha the radio song! 🤣
BEAVER!!!! LOL!!!!
الل علي الطبيعه الخلابه بوركت
Thanks Anwar!
*Translation:* God bless the picturesque nature
I am so going to binge your channel today. we are currently moving to your neck and woods. SO SO SO excited that we found you!
Hey almost neighbour! There is quite the history on our channel. It starts in middle of nowhere Manitoba, and eventually ends up here on the shores of Lake Superior a couple of years ago. Cheers!
@@Wilderstead Where exactly are you located? I just purchased a piece of property on Lake Superior north of the Soo. I'll be doing a greenhouse as part of the house build in 2 yrs tops.
@@suzannedu419 We are between Sault and Wawa. Keep your eyes peeled for our sign!
@@Wilderstead I bought a small piece of land in Goulais Bay area on west side peninsula. Lake Superior is my front yard!
Beautiful area!!
Pretty cool setup!!
Thanks Kurt. Been quite the project, but it is finally coming together for us!
Interesting to see what you are doing with your life after leaving Chesley.
Andy! Geez man, nice to hear from ya! Have a peek at this video here for some fun with another old friend! th-cam.com/video/WZ1wHrML1ng/w-d-xo.html
Fantastic vid! I'm curious.. I'm sure I know the answer already but with that system can you program it to open vents in the summer when it gets too hot?
Yep! You bet. Whatever is plugged into the thermostat comes on based on temperature. The vent fans I’ll wait to install later in the spring. No need for them just yet.
Maybe better to keep the batteries inside, if they discharge for some reason they could freeze. When i was involved in greenhousing we worked all the starts on tables and all the supplies on the ground under them. Look forward to seeing how you work things and the results you will get !
Next project in there is to get some shelving set up at about waist height along the front windows. At that point, we just might start moving some plants out!
I would have loved to see the wiring and hookup details, since I wouldn't know how to set something like this up and do not have help. Also, agree with other commenter the music is distracting. I know it's too late now of course but maybe in future videos go with no music for informative videos are set very very low. Thanks, nice setup!
Thanks. Great video. Can you add links to the equipment?
Thanks for the tutorial. How much it cost you & how many watts did you get from it?
If you put blue outdoor styofoam underneath your floor, you can minimize ground cooling of your green house. If your growing in bench beds rather than in the ground, of course.
Indeed. We are excavating the dirt floor this summer and installing in floor heating, heated by a massive compost pile.
I now live in a three story A frame home! The snow melts off my roof also! That's a huge problem! They didn't insulate the roof so all the heat, which naturally rises anyway, goes right out of the house through the ceiling! You have gone to the expense of a solar system and fireplace. Do youself a hugh favor and insulate that ceiling. You will save wood, battery and happy plants!
Question for you, Toni. Have you ever been in a commercial greenhouse in the winter and looked up? At the glass ceiling? Guess what. There’d be no snow up there. Sounds like you might need to do some work on the insulation in your house though. Thanks for watching!
This is so great. I want a greenhouse too. Next year... :)
Fingers crossed for you two!! It is so nice. Even just to sit in there and soak up the sun beside the fire in the middle of winter.
@@Wilderstead how much did the setup cost
Hi great vid explained perfectly for my level. Can anyone advise on a heater that can run off the solar set up? I live in England so our winters are unlike yours but still cold and I'd like to heat two much smaller greenhouses 143cmW x 143cmL x195cmH joined together but without a log burner or diesel heater or paraffin lamp just from solar. Thank you.
It will be very difficult to run a heater of any size using a small solar power system. You would need a very large battery bank to run a heater for any period of time.
Been pondering over solar for awhile now on my greenhouses. You made this look pretty simple. So it will take 4-100 watt panels to have enough juice to operate this greenhouse? From the pricing I have done over the last couple years has shown me it was much cheaper to just run mine on the grid. I was hoping one panel would do the job but now seeing it will take 4 of them has made my mind up. Thanks for the info!
Yeah, for your greenhouse sizes, CB, you'd be better off using grid power. We're setting this up on solar mainly because we are moving towards having our entire place off grid here. The 4 x 100 watt panels and the batteries will run the vent fans, circulation fans, and also about 300 watts worth of LED lights to supplement during the darker months. Cheers buddy!
what are the prices you've found? I'm wondering what the cut off point for cost effectiveness is for solar vs grid?
How much did it all cost I live in the uk
I think it’s just awesome you have the extra money for all this. We barely make our bills on social security disabilities. I guess I’m just jealous.
I hear ya Aaron. We do things on the cheap here though. We save anything that people deem to be junk. The solar stuff is all stuff that we have accumulated over the years. Some purchased, some salvaged!
Nice job, Canadian content is difficult to find, especially Northern content, I have a 6'x9' DIY greenhouse, trying for an all solar heat solution, thanks
Thanks for tuning in William!
Look in to hot beds using compost for heating.
I have a small 6 by 4 feet greenhouse can a 100 watt solar panel with 4 car batteries keep the heater on ?
It won’t run for long. Electric heaters use a very large amount of electricity.
What's the price for your solar system. .how can I get one?
I need to heat my green house 20 by 12 greenhouse in winter
Is there a chance you can go over all the wiring hook ups?
I'll definitely do that in a future video once the panels are mounted on the roof. It's very simple though. 14G wire running from the panels to the charge controller. 14G wire running from the charge controller to the battery bank. 14G wire running from the battery bank to the inverter. The two batteries are hooked up in parallel, which keep the voltage at 12V, but doubles the AH rating. So two 80AH batteries equal 160AH (roughly)
How is it working 3 years later? Any changes? Do you use it for lights only or heat as well?
This worked great while we were using it in the greenhouse. It ran fans and a few small LED shop lights for starting seeds. The greenhouse has had many updates since this video, and we've removed the solar since we ran a power line to the greenhouse. You'd be hard pressed to run any kind of heat off of a simple solar setup like this. You'd need an extremely large battery bank and you'd have to cross your fingers that the sun would shine enough in the winter to charge those batteries every day. We still use the woodstove as the primary heater in the greenhouse with a ceiling mount electric heater on a thermostat for backup if the fires dies down overnight and we don't hear the alarms going off to tell us to feed the fire.
@@Wilderstead thanks for reply! Yes, a large battery bank is an issue/cost and then to keep the batteries warm. I have commented on another video of my experience growing up with wood and the eventual use of outdoor wood burner was a game changer. Also gave my ideas of what I want to change on our lean to GH. We were lucky to get reclaimed refrigerator building panels free that I want to incorporate into heat sink. It should work great Z5a. The lack of sunny days is a huge factor in heating with solar, water, ect. If my new ideas help it will cut down electric usage as I just use for seedlings now, but want to extend growing leafy veg. because those recalls are crazy 😜.
Thanks again.
Could you list where you got the solar equipment?
Canadian tire for some of it, random finds some of it
Where are the links to the products you used??
In case some of us want to buy what you have
Everything came from Canadian Tire. Coleman brand.
Hi there, just wondering if you need a electrical permit for this of grid solar system?
You might where you live. Not where we are though.
@@Wilderstead also how did you ground your solar systems?
This system is small, grounding isn’t entirely necessary. This one was grounded from the inverter to a grounding rod. It has since been dismantled for an upgrade this spring. There will be a new video on it once I start the rebuild.
nice little system in the greenhouse, what is the cost on a system like that?
That whole system was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400$ or so, with the batteries.
@@Wilderstead Wow totally different price range then where I live,400$would be for only 3 solar panels if you look around
Don't put a thermometer in direct sun light (especially in summer)
Your charge controller is 12 volt. Don’t you need a 24 volt? Maybe. A dumb question I’m new to the solar game. Thanks.
It’s a 12 volt system. As basic as they come.
If you use a 12volt fan, you could get rid of the inverter I think.
If I got rid of the inverter I wouldn’t be able to run lights and the blower on the wood stove.
@@Wilderstead Sure you could. The fan on top of the wood stove uses no electricity firstly. Secondly, you can buy 12 volt lights, you only need 110 volt for the power tools. Inefficient, as you loose between 7 and 10% of your power to the converter itself. Thirdly. You are only transmitting 12 volt for about 6 feet. No big losses there either.
A passive solar air heater could lower use of the wood stove. Lots of cheap designs on TH-cam, some even using scrap.
The entire greenhouse is a passive solar heater. The woodstove runs when the sun isnt shining.
@@Wilderstead Sounds good.
Hmmmm I spotted uncovered osb wood 🤣🤣 that is a total fail. At least put Lowe's wrap over any temporarily exposed osb.
This video was a year ago 😂 😆 believe me, at the time it would have been amazing to snap my fingers and have siding on the greenhouse mid-video 😝
How much did your whole system run you?
Hard to say for sure as these are all components from past solar projects. I would put the pricetag at around 600$ when everything in the system was purchased new.
@@Wilderstead still sounds pretty reasonable if it is working for you..
Yeah, it’s not too bad at all really. Solar components are definitely a long term investment.
awesome Brother ! thank you so much- iam looking for a 5000" high S..N..O..W....I..NG.....PLACE..THANK YOU
Good luck!
Just sent you an email ......Thank you!
You know is you play classically music even during the day plants will do better!
Putting batteries in parallel like that is a bad idea; the weaker battery will drain the stronger battery. If you really need the energy of two batteries you'd be much better with two 6 volt batteries in series.
Please stop using music . It's hard to watch your chanel .