I was given a grow 8'x8' grow tent. I would like to set it up in my garage so I can grow in the winter. The problem is that the garage is not heated. I had an idea to help heat the tent but I dont know if it would work. The tent came with 4 600w HPS lights. From what I understand they would generate a lot of heat. If I exhausted the tent from the bottom instead of the top would that pull the heat down to the plants without doing any damage to them? In the spring I could move the exhaust back to the top of the tent. Just curious if this would help or hurt.
New Grower Grow tent heating in the winter
- Thread starter mrmojo420
- Start date
How cold is 'winter' for you, specifically in your garage? I would try to manage temps by moving the ballasts inside the tent if necessary. Get a remote outdoor thermometer and put the sensor in your tent so you can watch temps without actually opening the tent.
Thanks for responding. Im in the NE it gets pretty damn cold. I also have an infrared space heater that I could put in the tent to keep it warm. will the ballast be enough or should I try all three things. I will definitely get a remote sensor for it thats a great idea. Even if the tent is warm on the inside every time I open the door the plants will get chilled. My 55gal resavoir for my hydro system will be outside the tent and heated with 180 gal aquarium heater. hopefully that will be enough to keep it at 60 to 70 degrees
If your reservoir needs to be outside the tent, consider using a modified cooler to keep the solution insulated and warm, you will save a lot of electricity that way. If you cant keep your plants in the 75 degree range, you might want to reconsider your growing location. General consensus is that auto can handle more heat than photos, so better too warm than too cold.
How big is the garage and is it insulated? Might see if something like a nice oil radiator or other space heater could somewhat economically keep the garage in a good range for the tent. If there's room for one in the tent, though, would be less energy to heat the smaller space. If the ventilation swap would work, I could see one possible issue with it being an "all on all the time" type thing and maybe going too warm. Presumably the IR heater has a thermostat so the temp could be more on auto pilot without having to worry about cooking things. Dunno...just some random thoughts on it. :smoking:
I have same idea about a tent or closet in my garage.
What i have planned is to build a kind of heat resovoir in the bottom where i can blow the heat from the ventilation
through. I would use a cooltube to collect the heat from the hps.
I hope you get what i mean, english is not my native language.
Rilla.
What i have planned is to build a kind of heat resovoir in the bottom where i can blow the heat from the ventilation
through. I would use a cooltube to collect the heat from the hps.
I hope you get what i mean, english is not my native language.
Rilla.
I use a thermostatic heat mat designed to be used in a greenhouse and find it to be pretty good. A couple of other things to do would be to insulate your grow space/tent, and also to use circulation fans inside it to distribute the heat from your lights more evenly. From a cost point of view insulation will be more useful than heating, and might mean that you don't need supplementary heating if your lights are giving some heat off. I quite like the foil faced bubble wrap type insulation as really light weight and easy to deal with whilst seeming to do an OK insulation job too.
1000w HPS will keep your plant warm lol I run mine in the summer and it gets a lil warm but manageable
Attached or detached garage?
I ran through last winter in a 4x4 tent with 400w air cooled reflector, and added a 1500w oil filled radiator electric heater. Detached with 75% insulated, exhausting back into garage. I was fine with just one passive intake slightly open and heater on medium down to about 20*F and inline fan on low. Ran my auto's 24/0. Two small 6" fans at top blowing down.
This winter I'm bumping up to 1K watt and a piece of 2" foam insulation cut to cover my floor in tent. Also running a veg cabinet and exhausting into garage as well. My garage is drafty around the rollup door, but that's coming out and getting framed in this weekend.
I think you'll find you will have an easier time of things with 4x 600w. Go for it..
I ran through last winter in a 4x4 tent with 400w air cooled reflector, and added a 1500w oil filled radiator electric heater. Detached with 75% insulated, exhausting back into garage. I was fine with just one passive intake slightly open and heater on medium down to about 20*F and inline fan on low. Ran my auto's 24/0. Two small 6" fans at top blowing down.
This winter I'm bumping up to 1K watt and a piece of 2" foam insulation cut to cover my floor in tent. Also running a veg cabinet and exhausting into garage as well. My garage is drafty around the rollup door, but that's coming out and getting framed in this weekend.
I think you'll find you will have an easier time of things with 4x 600w. Go for it..
A Gardener
working Jah garden
I don't have a clue mate, but my two 250w CFLs with no extraction kept me at 10c inside my .7x.7 tent when it was -1c in the garage and saw me girls through 3 weeks. Good luck.
