How I lost my greenhoue due to a faulty heater. - Orchid Board

Dumb chemist · #1 07-15-2018, 05:28 PM

Last January, I had the greenhouse propane tank filled. After the filling, I went to the greenhouse and checked the gas heater and it was working okay. I then went back to the house. The next day I went to the greenhouse. Upon opening the door I knew something was wrong. Instead of warm moist air, my face was met with cold air. I checked the thermometer and the temperature was 29 F. I instantly knew that all the plants would be dead. It seems that the gas heater had shut down sometime in the previous afternoon and the pilot light had gone out. Mind you that this heater had worked the previous winter with no problems.

What I learned:

1) Have a secondary heater ready in case the primary heater fails.
2) Have a means of reading the GH temperature from a remote location and have an alarm to notify you if the temperature drops.

I did salvage 2 plants from the greenhouse that survived. One is a Hare's foot fern and the other is a Maidenhair fern. The latter had a half inch of ice on the water that the pot was sitting in. Both ferns were transferred to the house where they are growing very happily.

I have 2 Cymbidium pants that I have had for over 25 years and they were in the house. I had bought 4 plants since January: a Lycaste, a Stanhopea, an Encyclia and a Phalenopsis. They will have to do until I can fix the GH gas heater.

Dollythehun · #2 07-15-2018, 06:02 PM

Well, welcome to my world. That happened to me in 2016. Lost all my tender bulbs, my huge epiphyllums, a bleeding heart vine that was a keepsake and a huge cliva (I actually was able to save two starts off that). We then installed a backup because our backup failed. It runs off a thermostat that farmers use for chicken water. So, last winter, we hauled everything to a friend's green house and came home this spring with whiteflies and everything overgrown from too much heat.

You are NOT in an exclusive club.

Leafmite · #3 07-16-2018, 12:57 AM

I am sorry to hear about the loss. I have always been rather paranoid of this happening to my beloved plants so I grow in the home where I will know right away if there is a problem.

charlesf6 · #4 07-16-2018, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I am sorry to hear about the loss. I have always been rather paranoid of this happening to my beloved plants so I grow in the home where I will know right away if there is a problem.

very good idea!

Ray · #5 07-16-2018, 07:53 AM

In January 1994, I had a heater failure on a 7°F night. When I woke up, it had already "warmed" to 15° due to sunlight. Lost an entire 20-year collection of about 500 plants, including many plants I had purchased in their native lands while traveling and some I had collected myself - usually stuff fallen out of trees in parks (pre-CITES; don't freak out).

New heater (piezo-, not pilot light), new alarm system, backup heater that ran off of gas grill tanks.

Dumb chemist · #6 07-16-2018, 08:49 AM

Yes, I have learned my lesson about GH heating. Sometime ago, I looked on the Web in order to buy a spare thermocouple for my heaters (I have 3 all the same brand and model). That is when I found out that the Eco-Therm heaters had been discontinued years ago and there are only minimal spare parts available. So, it looks like I am going to have to save my "egg money" to buy a new heater. I considered a vent-less one;but, I found out that the combustion products that are vented into the room are not good for Orchid culture.

I did like the Eco-Therm heaters as its gas regulator did not need any electricity to work. The heater vents through the wall and uses outside air for conbustion.

Right now, the GH is sitting idle with the heater off. I will have to get off my duff and go out there and clean out all the pots. That is not something I look forward to as some of the plants did have a certain sentimental value. Some I had had for nearly 25 years.

MrHappyRotter · #7 07-16-2018, 08:59 AM

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

I'm probably years away from having a greenhouse, but I've already started playing around with a DIY solution using a Rapsberry Pi (small, cheap hobby computer), temperature sensor, and custom software stack. I'm sure there are pre-made options out there, as well.

The idea is to have an automated system keeping tabs on the temperature, and alerting me with texts, emails, etc if and when the temperature is out of range (too high or too low) or in the event that there's a network/hardware problem.

Dumb chemist · #8 07-16-2018, 09:50 AM

Mr. HappyRotter:

I did have a system to monitor the GH temp. except that my server is down due to a memory problem. If a temp dropped below a certain value, I had my server turn on lights using X10 modules/switches to alert me.

Are you using a 1-wire network or an X10 templinc? I have used both and find that the 1-Wire seems to work better as it is more reliable. I have used templincs and heyu software in the past however.

MrHappyRotter · #9 07-16-2018, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dumb chemist

Mr. HappyRotter:

I did have a system to monitor the GH temp. except that my server is down due to a memory problem. If a temp dropped below a certain value, I had my server turn on lights using X10 modules/switches to alert me.

Are you using a 1-wire network or an X10 templinc? I have used both and find that the 1-Wire seems to work better as it is more reliable. I have used templincs and heyu software in the past however.

Well, keep in mind, I don't have a greenhouse so the little project I've worked on is proof of concept only. And I'm not using an off-the-shelf solution, I'm developing my own software/application stack based on open source and custom developed software. I've hooked up a breadboard and DHT11 sensor to the Pi, and then used the available libraries to handle sensor readings.

The idea is to have the Pi push sensor data to a remote server (something as simple as a NodeJS/PHP app on AWS) on a regular, periodic basis (i.e. once an hour, every 15 minutes, etc). The Pi has a built-in Wifi adapter (and older models can use a USB Wifi adapter), and also has an ethernet port that's all I'm considering for the network.

This way, whether temperatures are out of range or the application can't confirm that temperatures are in range (i.e. because power/internet is out and the Pi hasn't reported any data in awhile), I could still get notifications.

In a set-up like this, reliability matters, so I'd definitely use an offsite 3rd party hosting service (Azure, AWS, etc) for the server side application. That way, local power/networking anomalies won't interfere.

For added security, I've considered adding multiple channels of fail-safe notifications. For instance, have a phone app that notifies you if it can't connect to the remote server after a given amount of time. You could also put the Pi and/or various components on battery backup so that when the power goes out, an alarm could sound or emergency lights come on, but that's a bit of speculation since I wasn't planning to go that route with things.

dounoharm · #10 07-16-2018, 03:52 PM

man, that is just awful! it seems we all have a tale to tell....my gh in nc, heated with propane...only no one at the propane company bothered to tell me that the gauge on their tanks malfunctioned frequently....so, I lost bunches of plants! I had a long heat mat so the plants near it weren't as dead looking as the rest....but it was pure hello, no joke!
I put a bunch of plants straight in the trash, but my heart was so hurt....I had a backup heater installed, electric, but I didn't go out there for a couple days...then I went out...and trimmed/whacked frozen tissue. you would be surprised how many of those froze plants actually recovered!! it took years, but I am patient, lol

I got a temp alarm too....never froze again...I have all the aces this time, lol