cost effective way to heat a large rabbit 'shed'

Hi lovely rabbity people We are new here & have a question or 2 relating to heating our rabbit building which is not yet complete. We are looking to get some kind of heating set up for our outdoor rabbits & was wondering if a coal fire with a flue would be ok? The shed when finished will have 3 1/2 sides ( well this is the plan at the moment) Were looking for something to take the chill off at night. We did look at sawdust burners but they are horribly expensive but a great way of getting rid of the huge amounts of sawdust we get rid of every day ( so we bought an incinerator bin to get rid of the sawdust & to save running to the local tip every few days) So what do you guys think about a coal burning stove? I've tried to add a photo of what we've had built so far for our rabbits but failed miserably lol So to see pics of where we are up to so far please click on the link and the photos are under the 'donate' bit. [URL="http://lucky-bunny.co.uk/
Any other ideas for heating will be great, many thanks for reading
Simone & Sam.

Hey there, welcome to the forum. I am new too and there is so much useful knowledge from folks and from the topics isn't there. if you have a look through the housing section you should pick up a few tips. I am in there daily, hehe

I would worry about using live fuel burning type things if you aren't in the building regularly to monitor it all (I could be wrong though and am sure that others will have more useful info to add on that front ;-) I am a worrier!

I have read that lots of folks use greenhouse heaters or oil burning radiators, if the building will have power to it? But if it's more a shed, i've found people insulate the walls/floor/ceiling with various options (foam boards, foil based insulation materials and even cardboard/old carpet offcuts, etc) use shutters of wood or perspex for the mesh areas and then use loads of straw/hay with one of those snugglesafe heat pads. I used one of those for the first time this week and the bunnies were straight onto it :-D I am making perspex shutters at the mo to keep the cold air out and will have a go at insulating too, but like you i'm not quite finished on the main building yet.


Good luck! x
ps- Might be worth asking an admin to move this thread into housing to grab the most viewers ;-) It's fab this site isn't it!

I would go with insulation. The main thing is that they are dry and draught free.

I put a small hutch in the quad's shed for them all to cuddle in. The sleep next to it!

Straw is a good insulator or bubble wrap.

Rabbits are well equipped to deal with the cold as long as they have a dry den. Insulation will help as it will remove draughts. Otherwise, I would just stuff a nest area / box etc with hay or straw so they can choose to snuggle in it if they want. If you really need a heater, some people have installed electric tubular heaters (search for 'garage heaters') which provide a low level of safer heating if the wiring is out of reach. The fire risk of any other type of heater in a bunny shed would worry me.