I have a room in my house that is very drafty and if I let it stay cold it keeps the rest of the house cold. I brought this heater from Target last year, I keep it on 24/7 on a low temp and after about a day running it has kept the room comfortable although not real warm. If I turn it up it will be smokey hot in there which I did not want to do. It has solved the problem. I checked my light bull and it did not change significantly over the year. I am wondering if this might be a solution for you? You are in zone 7 like I am and I have had no need for supplemental heat outside yet and my birds seem to be doing fine. Their whole pen is made of wire mesh with a box for them to go in at night. The temp has gotten pretty low and when it did the chickens stayed in their box huddled together for a while but for the most part they were business as usual. I did close their box on really cold nights though to keep out the drafts. HTH Here is a link that might be useful: heater

You folks kinda "frost me" with a bit of jealously ... because I'm just over the climate cliff, with a solid week of 22 F already this season. Hopefully it's over for winter. (Worst I've seen in last 15 yr is 17 F.) I'm in z8b with cool PNW summers. So I'm currently forgetting anything outdoors with limbs and am testing 1' plant base "stubs" with cold frame protection this winter. At 22 F outside it did not freeze inside at ground level. Next year plan to also try just dry fallen leaves and top tarp to save stubs. Also testing a whole main limb structure stored in our ~40 F garage along with backup cuttings, which I will soon start. Below is 'Frosty Pink' vs 'Little Angel' on the the day before the first hard freeze. It started with a heart breaking "wack em down" step. This was in late Nov with a few prior weeks of below 45 F night temps. BTW the 'Frosty Pink' cutting had finally got big enough above the Y to have its 2nd flower flush. 'Little Angel' in contrast had been blooming since mid summer and still was pumping out, now less full, flowers on the talker stem, with head more exposed to cold breezes. Compare with lower flowers on the backup plant. Note plants more green during the summer. They are cold stressed here (click photo, they're not quite that stressed). BTW this location is my Wife's favorite late summer "hammock spot" l, with these two Brugs at the footend. One poor 4.5' 'Little Angel' tub test is also currently in the garage, in the dark, and not being watered. Essentially leafless now, but with healthy fat stems ... it's pumped out a few half sized flowers in the dark! Past year photos. Another LA cutting from this same plant in a tub planter, in August. BTW this LA only received 3-4 direct summer sun midday in this location. This is a cool forested yard in Woodinville, WA. A lawn chair here put next to this tubbed plant placed that top leaf leaf node at hair level ... yep, my evening "Incense(d)" area. LA grows fast and has a flower or bud at every node, with staged nodes always visible for the next 2 to 4 flush cycles. She also throws a few flowers between flushes. So once it starts LA is always in bloom for us. "Floral attack*" gets exciting from mid summer onwards ... with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 ... but I've not yet made it further outdoors before frost, when starting from a same year cutting. LA is a VERY nice fragrance plant so you need to strategically place that lawn chair to get just the right exposure. Truly mind boggling when you want it! My style. (Should it be legal sitting that close without a license?) I saved a few nice cuttings for trades.

Have you tried growing veggies in straw bales? They generate heat as they "ripen up". I start my garden in March. I live in Colorado. I condition them for approx. 2 weeks, watering just the bales, and add granular fertilizer every other day. They get warm and juicy as the nitrogen kicks in, and when I feel heat coming out of them, they are ready to plant in. I just use a knife to cut a hole the same size as the roots, or the pot the plants came in. I pull out the straw, put in the plant, then use the removed straw to mulch around each plant. For seed, I just add one inch of soil to the top of the bales, working it in slightly, then plant seeds according to packet instructions. Roots systems of plants go crazy, having a free roam, compared to soil. Zero weeding. No bending or kneeling. My tomatoes lasted through November, with the last 98 of them picked from the top of a ladder...I couldn't reach them. So far, everything seems to love the bales. I love them too.

If you're in Alameda, it's a lot less likely to have frost because you're surrounded by water and are well inside the Bay. I live in Oakland, straight down High St. halfway up the Oakland hills, and our Meyers and Bearss are in the ground. Occasionally the fruit gets nipped by frost (interior dries out) but the issue is in-ground plants don't suffer because the ground NEVER freezes here. You may want to be more careful with container plants because most people use the smallest containers possible since large ones aren't easily moved....and smaller pots may be more susceptible to frost nipping. Keep them a foot or so off the ground; that will avoid the coldest air currents. Setting them against a south- or west-facing wall will help, too.