Space heater recommendations

[xavier7995]

Well winter is here and I learned last year that my garage is not quite warm enough for dope growing. Running 1k hps in a 5x5, lights on is ok but lights off is obviously a big drop due to no heat source, though I would probably want something to run all the time to keep it above 60.

Is it a terrible idea to run a small space heater in the tent? It seems the radiator style oil filled ones are the safest, but sort of overkill for my situation, but most info I found was old and maybe some advances have been made that make the ceramic ones a good viable choice. Mostly not wanting to start a fire.

I was looking at this as a radiator style one
http://www.homedepot.com/p/1-500-Wa...pace-Heater-with-Thermostat-HO-0279/309069851

 

[f-e]

I have found oil rads to be woefully lacking. Even in the coldest of rooms, they heat themselves and start cycling the power. I have a 450w one that's not as good as a 200w convection heater. The last one of a few, that I won't miss.

As a radiator, it's giving off IR. I suspect a lot of far red to, which could mess with flowering. Cause stretch, and be generally unhelpful. Can you heat the air before it goes in? If you have a dedicated inlet, then have it draw through a box where your heater lives. Or cram tube heaters up some metal ducting.

1000w should cook a 5x5 so perhaps you need to look at your insulation

 

[capnCõno]

I definitely do not recommend putting the heater in the tent other then the obvious shit that can go wrong like a dead leaf falling on it , it takes up space .... much better to just get a regular space heater n warm the garage outside the tent to a reasonable level ... run your lights on at night when it's coldest and off daytime helps a lot to...

ideally u could get a 2nd tent and run them flip flop but have them ducted together so one is always heating the other ... why fire up a 1000w heater when u can fire up another light that will make money instead of just cost... those heaters use a lot of power which could be used much more efficiently ...

 

[xavier7995]

Thanks for the input, yeah...upon further consideration my plan was not a good one. Going to look into heating the garage or running the heater in a separate box/area and piping the warm air in.

Edit: I guess I could just run autos for a round and keep lights rolling 24/7.

 

[I'mback]

Well winter is here and I learned last year that my garage is not quite warm enough for dope growing. Running 1k hps in a 5x5, lights on is ok but lights off is obviously a big drop due to no heat source, though I would probably want something to run all the time to keep it above 60.

Is it a terrible idea to run a small space heater in the tent? It seems the radiator style oil filled ones are the safest, but sort of overkill for my situation, but most info I found was old and maybe some advances have been made that make the ceramic ones a good viable choice. Mostly not wanting to start a fire.

I was looking at this as a radiator style one
https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-500-W...pace-Heater-with-Thermostat-HO-0279/309069851

That is what I got. Works like a charm Not the exact model but same concept.

ETA: I use mine near the air intake. Both the AC and Htr are pugged into a temp controller. Only on when either is required.

 

[capnCõno]

Thanks for the input, yeah...upon further consideration my plan was not a good one. Going to look into heating the garage or running the heater in a separate box/area and piping the warm air in.

Edit: I guess I could just run autos for a round and keep lights rolling 24/7.

If you gonna run one light 24/7 why not run 2 12/12 u will get 2x the weed n much better quality then if u went auto ... with exactly the same power... that heater is 1500w !!! That will more then double the power use for no reason ... utilize the cold temps to your advantage ... 2 tents will be hella cheaper n easier on your power compared to plugging a heater or running 24/7 autos ... get some insulated duct and come out the far side of one tent with a 90 fan in the middle and into the far end of the other tent that way u won't have any light bounce through the duct work...

 

[xavier7995]

It would make a lot of sense, but it is extra work and cost up front and I really dont need more weed as I just grow for personal use. I wound up spending a month or two smoking my hash/edibles piles last year and that sucked, but I am just a lil short and looking to limp one more in.

 

[f-e]

Well of your 1000w about 750w is heat. Your nights should be cooler than days, but I suggest no cooler than 18c. So maybe you don't need 750w of heat. Which a 1500w oil rad might produce with a 50% duty cycle. Which seems typical. The 1500w is for a reasonable heat up time, following which it cycles on/off.

Perhaps I shouldn't say, but I have put oil rads in cardboard boxes a few times. Done to pre-heat intake air. They don't get hot enough to set fire to anything. It's no different to mounting electric heaters to walls covered in paper over polystyrene. Or a flock. So even if the box is sealed, they just warm it up and regulate the temperature, as if in an open room. I have done this test with a 500w convection heater, which is more intense. I was never happy, but there it sat with my ballasts in a card box, warming my inlet air. Regulating fine, even with no airflow. Though I did have some considerable space above it, or that card would of been toasty. Though still nowhere near ignition temperature.
It's a difficult subject to convey, as doing it right, is so close to doing it wrong. If you can't figure it out without asking, it's probably a bad idea

 

[St. Phatty]

Hearing lots about people starting fires when they go to dry their hemp crops.

When heaters were manufactured in the US, the Quality Control department had this thing called "burn in".

They would run the product for 24 hours, to see what happened.

When American manufacturing was offshored to the lowest bidder, Quality Control fell by the wayside.

Even the huge Apple got snaked by the Chinese. Chinese intel snuck an extra IC onto Server boards headed for the Apple & Amazon Cloud.


ANYWAY, when you buy a heater, you have to do your own burn-in.

Never plug in a new heater, unless you are there to watch it the entire time that it is running.

Or you are trusting your life to some Chinese assembler who is treated as a Slave.


The heater I'm using for this year's small crop, I always un-plug if there's not going to be anybody home.

 

[RB56]

Not in tent but I run one of the oil filled radiator style heaters under my veg room table. It's set to 80°F at the lowest possible power setting. Doesn't use much power and gives me about 5 degrees. Since my flower room draws air from the veg room, both rooms get the extra heat. I also added a vent to one of the HVAC ducts into the veg room. During the coldest weeks of the year, I open that up and even without a return, get another 5 degrees or so. All about spending as little as possible adding the little bit of extra heat I need.

 

[xavier7995]

Good info all around, keep it coming. I have this nice but small greenhouse out back that is maybe 4x6 or 4x8, it has electric running out to it and a sweet swamp cooler type ac for the summer. I wonder if I could caulk up the seals and maybe stick a heater out there, saw some "greenhouse heaters" that might work or even a regular one, I would at least feel better about it being a bit away from my house rather than attached.

 

[RB56]

You could use propane in an outbuilding and get CO2 as a bi-product. Always wanted to do that but don't want to bring propane into the house.

 

[capnCõno]

It would make a lot of sense, but it is extra work and cost up front and I really dont need more weed as I just grow for personal use. I wound up spending a month or two smoking my hash/edibles piles last year and that sucked, but I am just a lil short and looking to limp one more in.

What do u have as an environmental control ??? easiest way to go about fixing ur situtation with out spending money is to just stick a heater near then tent in the garage and pay the power bill ... the suggestion of using propane is even better cuz it will add co2 but ur gonna be swapping tanks fairly often considering the building is not insulated and sealed properly... I wouldn't go building any boxes and venting heat in ... if u do all that it's the same as setting up a 2nd tent .. which u could do and just use it as a lung room put a heater or light in there no plants if u don't want more weed...

 

[xavier7995]

Just using fans, focus was on removing heat not keeping it in. So it pulls ambient air in through vents and then have a scrubber, cool tube, fan setup that vents out of the roof. Ambient air in garage gets pulled in around the door mostly, so going to seal that up. Not sure why it didnt occur to me, but going to disconnect the line I have going out the roof and just dump the warm air back into the room. Poking around through odd and ends out there I found a space heater and just plugged that in, raised temps 5-10 degrees so that was swell. Setup works great in the summer, never run more than 5 degrees above ambient temps...but those ambient temps are real low atm so...