Bananas.org - My project

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- - My project (https://www.bananas.org/f2/my-project-3332.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bencelest (Post 51711)

Richard: I am shying away with any electric heater. The problem with the heatmat is it takes a lot of mega electric to turn it on. It is just like turning an electric dryer all night. I bought me a soil heater that is similar to heat the floor in homes. I believe it is rated at 1800watts to 2400 watts. I never used it.
Once I got my patio enclosed, I am going to run a gas line to my patio and heat it with a ventless gas heater or tap into my existing house heat ventilation.

1800 Watts? That's nuts!! These are 1/10th of that. In an enclosed area, they will raise temperatures from the 30's to the 40's. Of course, they are not made for freezing or sub-zero weather conditions.

Wow! That's a lot of savings.
Please let me know when you get the news or email me.
Your babaco is doing great in my enclosed patio so is my priced Viente Cohol.

PS
next time you send babaco, keep it on the dry side.
I got yours with full of mildew and colored green from mildew.
I washed it with 5% clorox before I transplant it.

Amber:
I was so attached to my cat that even now, I was thinking about her. She was so attached to me and very closed to me. Thanks to her sister who was once very wild and lived outside and could not be approached turned around when her sister was gone and my wife could not make her remove her nose from my toes. She loved my toes so much and licked my arms and feet all the time. And wanted to play or just sit on my lap.
Thanks!

Benny

Chong:
Yes, I thought of that when we attended a party and someone asked me how to take care of her bananas. I found out that she has a matured cherimoya growing next to her dryer outlet vent outside with lots of fruit and her secret was her dryer.
So I looked for some ways how I can divert the same to my bananas. I could not. My wife was all against my plans because the vent will be showing and my dryer was about 70feet away.
Thanks for the thought.
I'd give my 'right arm' to grow cherimoya.

Benny

Microfarmer:
I tried the 75w to 150 watt light bulbs to heat my bananas but I found out the most economical and better distribution of heat are the mini Christmas lights. That's what I saved the fruits of my california gold because each light is only 4 watts. Gas heat is more economical though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chong (Post 51733)

Benny,
If you have a gas clothes dryer, you can vent it out to your enclosure and get heat that would otherwise get dumped outside. You get the extra bonus of the humidity increase in your enclosure. In order to keep the lint from going into your enclosure, put an old pantyhose at the outlet of the exhaust duct(hose). Then, periodically replace the pantyhose whne it gets full.

Come to think of it, you can do the same with an electric clothes dryer, too!

Chong

Venting a gas dryer in to part of your house is quite dangers the vent fums are fatal!

Quote:

Originally Posted by damaclese (Post 51850)

Venting a gas dryer in to part of your house is quite dangers the vent fums are fatal!

It is not. As I've indicated before, I am a mechanical engineer who designs HVAC for buildings. I have specified direct fired gas heating systems for office buildings and they wouldn't be allowed by code if they were unsafe. There are two byproducts of direct fired gas heating units: steam and carbon dioxide. As long as the burner gets sufficient oxygen, from the over abundance of air from the atmosphere, the product of combustion will always be carbon dioxide and steam. Carbon monoxide will only result if the burner is starved for oxygen.

The best way to ensure that you have adequate source of air is to have a small opening on an outside wall adjacent to the burning equipment. In the case of a gas dryer, a 6-inch opening would be sufficient. Make sure that you have a metal screen to ward off insects.

Benny, when you install your ventless gas heater, make sure you have a source opening for outside air, otherwise you will starve the room of oxygen and the burner will produce Carbon Monoxide before the burner stops burning. When that happens, all your plants will be killed. If your heater does not have the instructions for the fresh air opening requirements, PM me with the BTU/h rating of the heater (and the brand and model number would help), and I can give the proper size of opening for it. Also, that source should be in close proximity of the unit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by damaclese (Post 51850)

Venting a gas dryer in to part of your house is quite dangers the vent fums are fatal!

Paully, he means the warm air exhaust, not the combustion exhaust. We have done this for years in the north.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chironex (Post 51855)

Paully, he means the warm air exhaust, not the combustion exhaust. We have done this for years in the north.

Please see my previous post. In a gas dryer, the combustion exhaust is the same as the dryer vent. So this would be the same as a direct fired gas heater. A direct fired gas heater burns the fuel gas in the supply air stream, and hence does require a flue vent. Just like what Benny has for his project. An indirect gas fired heater has the burning gas in tubes, isolated from the supply air stream, and a flue gas vent will be required to exhaust the burnt gas products.

Thank you Chong for a very helpful input.
I'd call on you when I'm ready.
BTW, Joe Real doesn't post anymore.
I was in their house not too long ago and he was looking great!
But I did not asked him about why.
I am going to give him a wine making gadget once I see him again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bencelest (Post 51858)

Please say hi to him for me when you see him. I read some posts from him from time to time in another board. I am curious about his silence myself. But he said that he won't be posting for a while. And I know he's been working on his son's rehab.

I just saw his post in another forum
Here it is. I hope he does not mind me posting it here.

Hello Fellow Citrus Lovers!

My personal thanks to all of you well-wishers! Please forgive me if I can't catch up with all the emails and postings as of late. Been really too busy with the company growing and many changes in the family... But hoping it will be back to normal sometime in the future and correspond with most you again. I'll drop in from to time to give some updates whenever I can.

Most of you already know that my son is doing okay and I am personally helping him prepare to go to college, UC Santa Barbara most likely (cannot talk him out of it). Been spending a lot of time with all my kids. And as Benny have mentioned, and Millet personally congratulated (my personal thanks Bob!), we gave celebration party to thank God for fulfilling my wife's long dream of becoming a professional Nurse. Getting into the nursing school is tough and competitive in our area, and she got in after a very long wait but finished quickly and graduated with honors, passed the NCLEX and got a job... and so we celebrated with many friends, relatives, colleagues... We've had short-step yard tour, fruit tasting, wine tasting (20 fruit wines and 4 gold medal commercial wines), plenty of food, music, karaoke, wish you were all here... and I am still cleaning up.

As a gift, and to take advantage of the excellent real estate deals, my dear wife is planning to buy us a ranch style home with a 2.3 acre backyard, and so you could only imagine how much that size of backyard is going to limit my online activities. I managed to grow 550 fruiting cultivars in a 1/50th (725 sq ft) acre backyard of our primary residence, so just imagine what I could do with 2.3 acres! Finally, I would be able to build my own dream greenhouses with land to spare. But that would be several years down the road, God willing. Meanwhile, we are working out a deal to buy this formerly $1.45M home with 2.3 acre lot that is now being sold at less than half its original price:

By joereal at 2008-09-10

Nothing is final in a volatile market. If we can't get this one, we will look for another. There's plenty to go around. I myself love the bare back yard... this place has lots of "growing" potential. I love rebuilding a yard from scratch and nothing to uproot except the wild grasses. The first plants would be citruses, pomegranates, and cold hardy avocadoes. Already my list of plants is a mile long, just inside the imaginary greenhouse, Very Happy

and here's the house he is trying to negotiate
All I can say is WOW!!!!

Holy schnikies! And did your see the word GreenhouseS ?

I have read many of JoeReal's old posts and wondered where he went. Thanks for passing along his message. Hope we see him back in action here soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chong (Post 51856)

Sorry chong! guess i should read more throughly next time LOL

Update on my pergola project
Here's the dwarf brazilian with flowers emerging planted on my pergola project 9 16 08

and of course on my project enclosing my patio with glass on the sides I installed a Bay window and in it I put the viente cohol I bought pic on the left and the babaco that I got from Richard and some pepper plants. On the background on your right is a super dwarf cavendish that I separate from the mom and also I transferred the mom to a 15 gallon pot which will stay inside for the winter.

From left to Right
Viente Cohol
babaco
3 pepper plants
super dwarf cavendish
the larger banana at the background was outside planted on a wine barrel and it is dwarf orinoco

Benny,
I love your "Project"!! pretty and functional!!!
the interesting heating conversations were great reading too!!

Gina *BabyBlue*

Thank you Gina and thanks to all who participated to a lively conversation here.
Viva Banana Forum!