Good morning everyone. I've been contemplating a greenhouse for a long time. I have many tropical plants in the house as well as succulents and am forced to stay away from bigger plants because I just don't have the room. In the winter, my home looks like a jungle much to my wife's dismay and anxiety. The biggest thing keeping me away from installing a greenhouse is that I don't know how feasible it will be to continue use during the winter in central CT.

I'll likely go with a harbor freight 10x12. I understand the modifications that need to be done to make it better/stronger. I'm not really interested in debate about the choice of greenhouse, just want information on winter use. Can I expect it to be difficult to heat in the winter? Could I use a propane tank for heat? Should I expect it to be very expensive to heat the greenhouse enough to keep all my tropicals in it over the winter?

If I chose not heat it, how much earlier of a jump in spring and and extension in fall could I expect to get on the growing season?

I don't know anyone else in CT who has a recreational greenhouse so I could get advice from.

Thanks.

Let me start by saying I don't have a greenhouse and everything I know is from research and anecdote..
I feel your pain, because I'm the same way. I don't think in our location (I'm in Yonkers NY) you can avoid frost with a stand alone greenhouse that won't cost twice what building an addition to the house will cost..
Getting over on winter is not going to happen with something that comes out of a box, but you can extend your growing season so your tropicals don't have to come in on Sept 30 and stay there till June.
You could get through more fall, and go back out around the equinox, but Dec, Jan, Feb are non negotiable with a plug and play greenhouse made of poly sheeting.
I have a 6 sided room in my house with 11 windows, and when I close it off from the rest of the house it gets into the 40s in winter, and I have 5 layers of wall. I have exterior cedar shake nailed to plywood nailed to stud, on on the interior I have plaster and lath, covered with 1/2" wood paneling That I covered with 1/2" Sheetrock and every exterior wall has baseboard heat. At the widest points the room is 18ft x 8ft and I have 30 ft of baseboard heater. I'm barely staying about freezing, and I'm not sure it matters much, because even if they survive the cold, they're basically knocked out, dormant till it's warm.

I think a greenhouse is an excellent idea, but only to extend your growing season, store dormant roots, tubers and corms you will repot, and it can allow you to take cuttings in the fall that can come in small, and go out early so they don't overtake your life inside

Hi @DSGDSG6 and welcome to the forum.

A Harbor Freight greenhouse in central CT will be very expensive to heat. If you don't heat it, you can get a jump on the growing season, but a greenhouse with no heat, heat storage or insulation will only stay a few degrees above the outdoor temperature once the sun goes down. A Harbor Freight greenhouse offers almost no insulation. Most out-of-the-box greenhouses, even though they are advertised as "year-round", offer very little insulation and are not suitable for northern winter growing "as is".

Tropicals in a GH in central CT for the winter would require ground insulation, east and north wall insulation, perhaps a ground to air heat exchanger and supplemental heating as well...in addition to glazing that has a high insulation factor. You are talking big bucks...a very expensive pre-made or custom built.

I live in Northern NJ, not that different from your climate zone. My recommendation would be to attach the greenhouse to the house and built it as well as you can afford!
We/ Florian greenhouses
http://www.floriangreenhouse.c...
had our very sturdy greenhouse built on top of the garage, attached to the house. This was in 2001 and it is still perfect in many ways - It is connected to the heating system in the house ( oil heat) and on cold sunny Winter days acts as a heat sink, keeping the oil bill down. Air conditioning comes in handy in early Fall and sometimes in the Spring. I keep mostly Orchids and some C&S and move all my plants outside over the Summer.
I love walking in the middle of Winter barefoot in my sunny greenhouse ( glass ceiling) with a cup of coffee, bounce some gorgeous music of the glass walls and attend to my plants. Heaven!