Heating the soil in the greenhouse with their own hands using a heating cable

Dependence on climatic conditions is the factor that greenhouse owners do not want to put up with. To get an early harvest, summer residents are constantly looking for new opportunities, ideas for improving greenhouses and their maintenance conditions. Heating the soil in the greenhouse with their own hands using a heating cable is an innovative technology that has been successfully used in the agronomic field.

The heating cable allows you to adjust the temperature and maintain it within the required limits. Thus, the heating system provides an individual temperature for each growing season of plants. The heating of the electrical wire is adjustable and allows you to create in the greenhouse the optimum level of the microclimate, and also provides protection against sudden frosts.

Heating cables are divided into self-regulating and resistive. Resistive heating cable for heating a greenhouse is an electric wire with an active heating core, which consists of one or several heating conductors. Heat is generated by passing electricity through it.

A semiconductor matrix that surrounds the conductive elements is responsible for heating the self-regulating wire. This type of cable is reliable, it does not burn out and does not overheat, even if a random overlap of its fragments occurs.

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Heating of the greenhouse with a cable - advantages of using

The possibility of controlling the temperature of the soil and maintaining it at a given level speeds up the germination time of sprouts and shortens the time from germination to fruiting. This factor also significantly increases the yield.

Heating of the soil provides such advantages:

• the possibility of planting plants in the early stages;
• risk of soil freezing;
• accelerating plant growth and development;
• ensuring an ideal microclimate even under adverse weather conditions;
• prolongation of fruiting;
• the possibility of growing thermophilic varieties of vegetables in any climatic zones;
• the possibility of accelerated germination of seeds.

The optimum temperature for vegetation of plants varies from +17 to + 25ºC, the thermostat with which this heating system is equipped is responsible for the accuracy of the indicators.

Different plants with individual temperature requirements can be grown in the greenhouse, so there should be several such regulators. Thus, under each species and variety will be determined by its plot of the greenhouse with the appropriate temperature of the soil. To avoid drying out the roots of the seedlings, it is necessary to correctly calculate the cable power - it should not exceed 18-20 W / m.

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Heating a greenhouse with a heating cable - mounting

You can easily heat up the soil in the greenhouse with your own hands, especially if you have the basic skills of dealing with electricity.

Installation steps:

1. With a bayonet we remove a layer of soil( approximately 30-40 cm).
2. Align the bottom of the niche, cover it with sand( about 5 cm thick) and tamp it down.
3. We put an insulating layer on the sand( so that the heat does not go into the soil), foam polystyrene will be optimal for this purpose.
4. Lay the sand layer again( 5 cm).
5. Put a stainless mesh over the sand( 5-10 cm cells).
6. We make laying of the heating cable( “snake”, about 15 cm pitch) and fasten it to the grid with plastic clamps. The layout of the cable starts from the thermostat.
7. From above, we again lay a layer of water-soaked sand( 5 cm).
8. Put a plastic or stainless mesh on the sand, it will protect the cable from possible damage.
9. At the top, we lay a layer of fertile soil( or a removed layer of earth mixed with fertilizer) about 30-40 cm.
10. We hide the thermostat sensor in a special corrugated tube. The thermostat itself is set at 1 meter from the ground level and also placed in a moisture-proof box.

Simplified heating cable laying pattern looks like this:

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Soil heating in a greenhouse - features of operation

After the temperature set by the controller rises to the desired value, the system automatically turns off when it drops to the specified limit - turns on. This nuance allows you to save 30% of electricity.

The most active heating lasts from March to May, in May the system is used periodically to protect against frost. In autumn, the soil is heated in the greenhouse using a heating cable to prolong the harvest period. With the advent of sustainable heat the system can be turned off - this is an example of the standard use of the greenhouse. If your greenhouse operates all year round, then the soil will be heated in the greenhouse according to an individual plan.

A well-equipped cable heating system for the soil has a lot of advantages, among which the full automation and heating uniformity stand out. Heated soil in the greenhouse with his hands every year finds more and more fans. Reasonable price and substantial savings in energy costs make it possible to use soil heating in a greenhouse on a small area or on a serious industrial scale.

Watch a short video on how to install a heating cable in a greenhouse to heat the soil.

And one more video. It will tell you how to install an electric cable heating system for ground heating( available on the market) in a greenhouse or winter garden.