It’s the cold time of year, so I found a Comfort Glow Blue Flame heater for about $220 bucks that comes with a thermostat.   It works great.  The thermostat has 5 settings, and it’s designed to heat one thousand square feet with its 30,000 BTU output.  The Dome is 850sq ft, and on setting one, it keeps the greenhouse at about 39 degrees during the night. I added a 100 pound tank that holds about 25 gallons of propane.   In the morning it shuts off automatically.  It’s pretty cool to go out in the morning after a snowfall and watch the snow melt and slide off of the dome.  The plan is to use solar water to help keep the water tank close to 60 degrees in the winter, and on the super cold below zero nights to use the propane heater as a back up if we get several days in a row with no sun. 

It’s now late April, and still we get snow in the Rockies.  It seems like one day I think of heating the dome, and the next day it’s time to keep it cool.   We’re ready for next winter with the hot water solar panel we installed to help keep the water tank warm.  And, all of the dirt is finally in the growing beds.  There is still room for more plants after we did tomatoes, peppers and onions.  In fact, there’s tons of room left.  We’re doing a cactus garden now.   Here are the latest pics. 

Here is the new solar heating panel.  A 30 watt solar panel gives the pump enough juice to run water from the tank to the panel and back again.  I mounted it in the front of the dome to collect the most heat in the winter months, and the water is very hot if you start the pump at noon.  The temperature steadied out at 60 to 70 degrees, enough to help keep the main tank warm.  We’ll see come November when the temp starts to drop.   Now it’s time to check out the summer with the cool air in the Rockies.  

Karma is getting bigger at 6 months.  She’s not afraid to run after deer, which isn’t the best idea.  You can get lost in the woods up here.  Oh, and that’s snow outside on April 14th.