Winter heating in tent

[DCLXVI]

Hey friends!

Just a question about adding a heater to an indoor tent grow during the winter. I have a honeywell heatbud on standby. It is a small 250w forced air heater. I picked it due to the low watt and power draw and its around $20 on amazon.

Are there any compelling reasons to not use a "hot air" heater in a tent? I'm going to control it with an inkbird sensor/power strip to control the temps. I know oil filled heaters are popular but in a small 2x2 tent I have not seen a small enough unit. I did come across some panel style heaters. Let me know what the community thoughts are. Thanks all!

Current heater: Not in use but will be for next grow.

Honeywell HCE100B Heat Bud Mini Home Heater

Heat Bud Ceramic Heaters feature a 250 watt output that's ideal for heating personal to small sized areas of space. This unit includes two differing heat settings that allow users to shuffle between varying levels of performance.

www.honeywellstore.com

Possible upgrade if needed: Panel style 150w heater - Sengoku 150w Under Desk Mini Panel Electric Space Heater, SP-160

Amazon product

 

[St. Tom]

Hey friends!

Just a question about adding a heater to an indoor tent grow during the winter. I have a honeywell heatbud on standby. It is a small 250w forced air heater. I picked it due to the low watt and power draw and its around $20 on amazon.

Are there any compelling reasons to not use a "hot air" heater in a tent? I'm going to control it with an inkbird sensor/power strip to control the temps. I know oil filled heaters are popular but in a small 2x2 tent I have not seen a small enough unit. I did come across some panel style heaters. Let me know what the community thoughts are. Thanks all!

Current heater: Not in use but will be for next grow.

Honeywell HCE100B Heat Bud Mini Home Heater

Heat Bud Ceramic Heaters feature a 250 watt output that's ideal for heating personal to small sized areas of space. This unit includes two differing heat settings that allow users to shuffle between varying levels of performance.

www.honeywellstore.com

Possible upgrade if needed: Panel style 150w heater - Sengoku 150w Under Desk Mini Panel Electric Space Heater, SP-160

Amazon product

i use a greenhouse tube heater bro its does the trick for me mines green though

 

[Ryno_nuggs]

So I have a 2x4 tent and was having issues with temps dropping. I went with a chicken coop panel heater similar to the one you posted. It has worked out quite well and has a lower watt usage than the hot air one. I tried to find a tube heater like st tom suggests, but in the US you just can not get them without paying international shipping. Why the hell they don't sell them here is beyond me.

 

[DCLXVI]

Agreed! I should have mentioned, I'm US based and the oil heaters are just not popular here. I was looking at tons of options online but the shipping killed it.

 

[Ryno_nuggs]

This is what I went with. It seems to be able to due the trick. It keeps over my low set point of 68. Depending on how cold you are where you live, and also how much air exchange you have, it could work. Mine does not run full time as I just live with my low temp being a little lower than I prefer in the winter. I also do not run my exhaust 24/7.

What are you daytime and nighttime temps? And does you exhaust run 24 hours?

 

[Ryno_nuggs]

The other thing I did was insulate the hell out of my tent with insulation board layered with pink cotton candy insulation, then covered in thick sleeping bags. Insulation and air exchange rate is the most important part to keeping my tent up to temp.

Also have you lights off period during the day if you are not doing that already.

 

[BII]

I think insulation is inherently better than having to add that much heat.

You didn't mention perhaps the most important thing - what are you doing in terms of air exhaust (and input)? Do you run an exhaust fan all the time or control it with a thermostat?

 

[Death The Cultivator]

What's your temperature outside the tent?

Regulating the exterior temps to 72f+ would be infinitely better than using space inside for a heater.

 

[BCBudlady]

Thought of a heat mat with temp controls? I use a 2x4 ft mat, set at 80f. That keeps the root zone happy, boosts the overall temp to 75f in the tent. It will get a bit cooler in February, but the crew will be finishing by then.

 

[DCLXVI]

Wow, thanks for all the reply everyone.

The basement where the tent hides stays at or above 17-18c / 64-66f, inside the tent with the light driver it only reaches 22c/72f currently. It has gotten much colder down there in the recent weeks. At the beginning of my grow it was holding steady at 22-25c / 72-77f but recently dropped considerably. It never got "too cold" but I was looking to add a few degrees to keep it above 20c/68f during the lights off time.

I have an inkbird controller to regulate the heating unit and hold a range. I do have the exhaust on 24/7. I turned it down to the minimum setting to help try and keep the warmer air inside the tent. I do have a temp/humidity regulator sensor on the exhaust fan. It is an ACInfinity unit. However, I found too much smell was escaping during the exhaust "off" periods so I had to set it continous.

I had been browsing the chicken coop style heaters. @Ryno_nuggs I'm glad to hear they work well for you. I was unsure if they put off enough heat. It is a very small 2x2 tent so I think I will give one of those a try.

Thank you everyone!