I had too many growing areas going, under light, in windows and Wsed. So I decided to combine most of the seedlings to one area , on my unheated west facing porch on metal shelving. 2 nights this week temps were 24 and 28 degrees, so as soon as I got home from work I covered the shelving with old curtain sheers and later a tarp to retain heat. Recorded temps in there were 57 at 11pm and 47 by sunup. Everything survived and are happy campers. I still have my impatiens in the bedroom, pinching and propogating more of those, as well as the seed geraniums in a small patio greenhouse in the front of the sliding glass doors. If you are referring to those greenhouses that have clear plastic, be careful, that clear plastic can fry plants in the daylight in a matter of hours. When I had one of those I used it inside in front of the west windows, even inside it was difficult to maintain without frying and temp control when I was working and couldn't watch all day. Using it outside was a disaster, either frying plant or drying out too fast or getting blown over by wind. That mini greenhouse went to dumpster land 2 seasons ago. Any of the seedlings I plan out putting outside now would remain in their trays and pots take outside during the day and bring in at night. I finally smarted up and got shelving with castors!

Hello everyone..I still a newbie here but still wanted to share.. Mine have been in my garage since the end of October since our first last frost.All the leaves dropped off shortly after that on my 5 foot one in a 5 gallon pot,while the leaves on my 2 gallon pot stayed on. It has been very cold here recently and I decided to check on my trees wrapped in blankets and covered with other huge pots, just to realize the temp in there was 29 degrees. it is my first time wintering these things, and since the little guy was in almost frozen mix, and the big one, not quite so because it was covered with blankets, I still decided to pull them into my shed since the temps in there are about 35 or so.. I hope they make it...They still look green and the next years buds look ok.. Keeping my fingers crossed.. I do not water since the cold soil seems to still be moist..I haven't had to water since October telling me that the plant is completely dormant and they were covered very well so they would not dehydrate. Thank you for all your advice and experiences.. Mike..:-)

I BEG you not to leave your space heater on all night!! I'm also uncomfortable with placing a blanket over the heater, even when you're awake (which in my case doesn't last long in a recliner). What if it shorts or catches the blankets on fire? Last time I looked, electric blankets tend to have warnings about leaving them on for too long or when asleep. Saving money and resources is commendable. IMO, however, it's not worth losing your life or home. If you want to keep a space heater on when you're up and about, fine. But do yourself a favor and do the central heating thing at night. One more thing--do you have power outages often? What would happen if your house was at 51 degrees, and then there was a power outage preventing you from using your space heaters? Starting off that cold, you'd be down to freezing conditions a lot quicker than if you started off warmer. It's really easy to install a programmable thermostat. This allows you to have the house chilly when you're not home or asleep, and then warmer when you're up and about. It saves money and hassle--no more remembering to lower the temp.

"How does an electric dry pull a lot of air?" Mike: Of course there's a fan inside the dryer. All clothes dryers, electric or gas, pull a lot of air from the surrounding area, run it past the heater (gas or electric) to heat it, through the drum of wet clothes and out the dryer vent. Regarding the furnace: Anything other than very minor leaks in the return air system on a furnace (which are usually canceled out by minor leaks on supply plenum) are a problem. You can have back drafting of the furnace - far worse than back drafting of the water heater because it's more CO (more btu/hr input) and because that means it's pulling the CO into the return air and circulating it in the house. "I would not trust any contractor to know the local code especially where a mistake could cause a big safety issue"... umm ok. To begin with that's not really the issue - since as I said, the issue is that Lowe's WON'T do the job. But that's really an absurd statement because virtually every job, be it electric, HVAC, Plumbing or even many carpentry jobs depend on the contractor knowing code to do a safe installation. If we can't start with that assumption the building trades would come to a screeching halt. I'm not naive... I do know people make mistakes and/or are unqualified. But the people who do this for a living and have their work regularly inspected by local authorities and who's livelihood is dependent on being able to be licensed, bonded and insured are in a pretty good position to know local code. Besides, killing your customers is a big civil liability, potentially a criminal liability and really bad for business. It's far more likely that the average DIY installer would make a serious safety error. The OP is very aware of the makeup air issue. He's going to point that out to the contractor so it's not overlooked. As far as we know, this has been an acceptable situation up to this point with makeup air grills in the outside wall and floor. Nothing has significantly changed since the original design. A contractor is going to confirm the makeup air situation meets code and then install the heater. He may even inspect the current heater for evidence of backdraft. The real issue is a broad warning in the manufacture's installation instructions that, while is important to bring to installer's attention, is too broad. (again, how near is "near"? Is that 24"? is that in the same room? is that in the same dwelling unit?) Lowe's had no choice about following this prohibition because explicit manufacturers instructions are binding if not counter to local codes. If the instructions said not to install the heater in a room that was painted white, it would be just as binding.