low lights out temps/wintertime basement grow

[medicated4]

My temps in my basement grow room have been known to swing into the lower 60's after lights go out during the coldest part of year. Should I be running a heater to bring temps up to the average lights on temp of 75ish?Am I loosing out on a significant amount of yield/quality from this? I'm kinda scared if I dont get these temp swings in check my ladies are gonna go hermie, is that a serious possibility?I do atleast have 4 inches of pink foamboard on the floor under the plants and all walls are insulated nicely as well. Any personal experiences/advise from the fellow members is greatly appreciated.

 

[Muleskinner]

I wouldn't worry about, my apartment used to be that cold in winter, as long as the temp quickly gets into the 70's during the day it should be OK. I used to drop it into the upper 50's the last week or two to bring out the purple.

 

[Andyo]

60 nights

60 nights

60 f was fine for me.
I used set propane heater at 60 f

 

[medicated4]

yeah the temps stabilize quickly once lights come on its just after lights out the basement floor everywhere in the basement other then the grow room acts like a free..unwanted..ac unit that gets sucked right through the intake into the grow room lol. Atleast the floor in the room/walls are insulated nicely. Thanks for the quick reply bro!

 

[medicated4]

Thanks for the reply Andyo! I have more hands on experience in outdoor growing. Certain things regarding indoor growing, I just dont quite trust my personal judgement alone because Ive only had a couple crops indoor(they were amazing though). I always figure when in doubt ask questions. I appreciate you taking the time to share some knowledge with me. hope all goes well in the new year.

 

[atk7]

My space gets very cold at lights out also I found by having the exhaust fan on a timer to match light cycle helps. that way it is not sucking in the cold air during lights out. but monitor closely for condensation especially during late flower . Adjust the timer for the fan to run a little longer or to come on periodically during lights out to vent moisture and bring in more co2 laden ambient air. And of course keep fans on in the space to keep air moving around in the room . Just the exhaust fan on timer

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

My temps in my basement grow room have been known to swing into the lower 60's after lights go out during the coldest part of year. Should I be running a heater to bring temps up to the average lights on temp of 75ish?

Lower 60's won't hurt yield much, any lower and I'd definitely put in a heater. Once you drop below 60F you'll see plant growth slowing each night.

 

[sheik_yerbouti]

Do you turn the fans off at night? I'm in a basement in a cold climate and I used to battle this as well. I found that turning the exhaust fans off and running a dehumidifier keeps the temps at a reasonable level. The smell though.....

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Water retains a butt-load of heat. If you had standing water reservoirs, they would collect heat from the light of day and sloowly let it all back off at night. Couple big black trashcans or sum. Not saying its a practical use of space, but.. water is pretty amazing in this way. It's why our planet isn't a frozen rock.

I heat a big covered pot of water with propane for co2 during the day, and leave my hot pot of water in my room at night to help match things up a little closer to my 85f day temps. The water really sucks up all the heat straight away and retains it, so much that you can almost start to boil a water balloon with a candle through the latex.

 

[HarvestMoon303]

I have the same issue. It's a little shed with almost no insulation, and the temps have been really cold lately (sub-0 degrees F). The ladies slowed down a bit for sure, but they don't seem to be too angry. I put a heater in with them when I walked into a lights-on temp of 50 degrees, right after they fired up. The heater is on a thermostat, but it could be on a timer these days. Of course, it's supposed to jump up about 45+ degrees F, so you need to be ready to adapt to changing conditions. When it was 60+ degrees outside, I couldn't run my lights without having the door open due to heat (it could hit the 90s). Now that it's 0, the lights-on temps don't exceed 74 or so.

I might try a few black 5-gal buckets of water under the nice hot lights. I have some extras now that I'm in dirt. I'll let everyone know how they work.

 

[EastCoast710]

I run a separate filter and fan for lights out.. and have my dehumidifier come on.. no exhaust.. keeps my temps 65-69.. with no heater.. but dehumidifier goes off 10 mins before lights come on.. and exhausts come on at lights on.. and intake comes on when its needed to cool

 

[Drop That Sound]

^ 2 fans does work good, keep one barely idling 24/7, and the main one on a timer with the lights. Still have to babysit them though.. A cheap on/off digital temp controller works even better for lights on fan rather than using a regular timer, comes on when needed which helps a little bit.

By the time you fork out to get it all setup though (unless you already have all the equipment laying around already) you might as well have just bought a titan mercury 4 that has idle speed and set points already built in, to kick down the main fan at night. I'm so tired of the changing conditions lately and fooling with multiple heaters, thermostats, and digi temp controllers, want to just to shell out and get a complete environmental digital controller like the saturn 5.

Going sealed is the best option though if you can afford to do so, I haven't quite got around to it yet but probably will as soon as spring time is here, why waste free AC right? I want to be able to do both at any time, run naturally or supplement c02 depending on the conditions.

 

[jocat]

there are day/night temp controllers that allow different set points for both.