Grow tent insulation

[bergs149]

Hi all,

I have a 2.4m x 1.2m grow tent placed inside a non-insulated Garage / Shed.

I am just about to head in to winter, and i'm looking to be more efficient with my energy costs. Long term plan is to insulate the entire shed, but at the moment, that is not possible.
So for the interim, I was thinking of purchasing an insulation blanket, and covering my tent with it.

I have 2 LED QB's set up & I run a small oil filled heater on the inkbird temperature controller, which does get the room temp up. I never get snow and usually only get the occasional frost throughout the winter - nothing too crazy. I run the lights over night also.

My question is, do you think I am wasting my time or does this seem like a good idea?

This is a photo of the insulation I was looking at:

Thanks for any feedback

 

[Jimmythenugg]

Guessing your night schedule will keep the balance and avg temps good for the girls.
With slim chance of frosts outside reckon your daytime temps will be avg 10c +
That will slow the girls down a chunk. But with your heater running (use timer to switch intermittantly?!) you'll be back to 20c ish ?
I'm assuming a lot here but though the insulation will not hurt, I suspect you'll not really need it unless you want to remove the heater from equation.
Good luck @bergs149

 

[Chronic_passion]

I'm in the UK and our winters aren't too harsh compared with other countries but with night temps in my garage dropping to -5⁰C at worst, I struggle to keep temps up above 18⁰C (same basic setup as yourself, 2x 180W oil rads on an INKBIRD and LED lights). I've been toying with the idea of insulating too. @Slater covered his groom with kingspan sheets (was in a UK attic, he's been MIA for about 9 months now) and he got good results. I'd say go for it but how will you attach it to the sides?
The more it's insulated the less the heater will need to be on... could be money saving in the long term too...

 

[bergs149]

Guessing your night schedule will keep the balance and avg temps good for the girls.
With slim chance of frosts outside reckon your daytime temps will be avg 10c +
That will slow the girls down a chunk. But with your heater running (use timer to switch intermittantly?!) you'll be back to 20c ish ?
I'm assuming a lot here but though the insulation will not hurt, I suspect you'll not really need it unless you want to remove the heater from equation.
Good luck @bergs149

Yeah, you're about right. Daytime temps range from about 10 to 18 or so I guess, overnight will be consistently in the single digits I'd say.
The insulation isnt about completely removing the heater, but trying to not have it on as much, with insulation keeping some of the warmth in the tent.
Thanks for the reply

I'm in the UK and our winters aren't too harsh compared with other countries but with night temps in my garage dropping to -5⁰C at worst, I struggle to keep temps up above 18⁰C (same basic setup as yourself, 2x 180W oil rads on an INKBIRD and LED lights). I've been toying with the idea of insulating too. @Slater covered his groom with kingspan sheets (was in a UK attic, he's been MIA for about 9 months now) and he got good results. I'd say go for it but how will you attach it to the sides?
The more it's insulated the less the heater will need to be on... could be money saving in the long term too...

Sounds like we're in the same boat :smoking:
I've gone ahead and purchased a roll of this insulation blanket - if all else fails, I can just throw it in my shed when I get around to doing it.
As far as getting it to stick to the walls - Try and stick with me here as I try my best to explain lol...

The rolls are 1.2m x 15m long. What I've done is literally flip it from one side of the tent, straight over the other side - no cuts required. The foil runs wider than the actually fibreglass insulation itself, by about 50mm on each side, so what I was able to do was just purchase some gaffer tape (Gorilla Tape) and stiick it to the corners of the tent. I guess you could use some adhesive if need be. With the other two ends, they will have to be cut to fit, but again, with the 50mm overlap of foil, you're just sticky taping the foil to foil, so it actually bonds quite well. As far as the entrance doors, because my tent is 2.4m, the 1.2 width of the roll means it overlaps at my door, I wont worry about stickying it up or anything, I think it will be fine if I leave it.

It's only been one day so by no means is it a solid investment but the theory seems legit. I looked at those kingspan sheets when I picked up my roll, and I will be purchasing some of those for the floor of my tent. Think they would work well.

If you're interested, I could take some photos of what I have done and can give it a couple weeks and post some feedback on whether or not it keeps my heater off more often.

Thanks for the reply

 

[Chronic_passion]

Hey @bergs149 nice explanation. I'd be very interested to see how it turns out so I might do the same myself