Near Disaster in the Greenhouse

Earl · March 18, 2006

Last night's temp was supposed to drop to 24, and all day yesterday I worked my butt off finishing up the insulation and getting the shade net on the GH. I'd bought two small heaters and they'd been keeping the temp in the uper 50's, so I felt pretty good about the situation getting all the insulation finished up.

I use one of those wireless themometers to check on the inside GH temp. This morning when I looked at it it read 33!

Yes, I nearly passed-out. I went flying outside in my bathrobe. I didn't hear the radio playing as I approached the GH so I knew the electricity had gone off. After peeking inside [I figured my tomato plants would all be folded over in a frozen state, but they looked ok.]

Back in the house, I headed for the switch box and sure enough, the breaker switch had been tripped. The temp didn't get down to 22 like it was supposed to, only to 27. Had the weatherman been right the temp inside would have dropped into high 20's.

Lesson learned, don't put two heaters on the same breaker switch unless you know it can handle the load.

March 18, 2006	#1
Earl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 1,278	Near Disaster in the Greenhouse Last night's temp was supposed to drop to 24, and all day yesterday I worked my butt off finishing up the insulation and getting the shade net on the GH. I'd bought two small heaters and they'd been keeping the temp in the uper 50's, so I felt pretty good about the situation getting all the insulation finished up. I use one of those wireless themometers to check on the inside GH temp. This morning when I looked at it it read 33! Yes, I nearly passed-out. I went flying outside in my bathrobe. I didn't hear the radio playing as I approached the GH so I knew the electricity had gone off. After peeking inside [I figured my tomato plants would all be folded over in a frozen state, but they looked ok.] Back in the house, I headed for the switch box and sure enough, the breaker switch had been tripped. The temp didn't get down to 22 like it was supposed to, only to 27. Had the weatherman been right the temp inside would have dropped into high 20's. Lesson learned, don't put two heaters on the same breaker switch unless you know it can handle the load.