definatly,get hps lights,in the winter when its 35 degrees outside my tent,my 1000wt heats a 4x4x tent,easily to were i want,little tweaking, with exhoust,and light air through hood,no prob ,summer i drop to 600wt or 430wt,1000wt to hot without a/c good luck buddy kind
Just an update for anyone who cares: I decided today to move my setup to an unused upstairs bedroom closet. I initially chose the basement over the closet because the basement has more space, probably better airflow, and is more hidden. I was also concerned (and still am concerned) about the smell since the closet is on the second floor in an unused bedroom right next to the other bedrooms. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. There's a small rectangular opening in the back wall of the closet that provides access to the plumbing and crawlspace in the wall, so I'm thinking I might be able to point a fan into the opening and pull some of the smell down there, rather than letting it accumulate in the closet/bedroom. Temperature and humidity are also WAY better in this new closet setup. My last reading in the basement earlier today was 63 degrees, 72% humidity. In the closet now, I'm getting a reading of 76 degrees, 59% humidity.
The only thing I can say is plan to deal with smell before it is a problem! If you are worried someone will smell it, they will smell it So you may want to get working on a carbon srubber or purchase one to direct into that vent right away. You can use some 4" or 6" dryer flexible tubes (or multiples of each) to pull in cool air and push out scrubbed hot air. With CFLs you won't need much, but you'll have a stank to deal with for sure. Can you run a 4" tube somewhere less conspicuous for the heat vent? Or can you run it through some kind of filter first? Just warning you, it's a smell product you're working on, make sure you are prepared before it's an issue.
Hmm I need to do a lot more research on smell control and filters. I sort of assumed that the smell would either not be that strong since I'm only trying to grow two plants, or that i could vent it into the opening to the crawl space with a small fan. But I don't have a great understanding of what goes into setting up filtration and ventilation. Since I don't own the house, I can't do any construction or make modifications that will permanently alter the room. Luckily, my roommates are fine with me doing this grow, so my main concern with smell is just preventing neighbors and visitors to the house from detecting it. If it's any consolation, one of the plants I'm growing is Northern Lights x Shiva, and I've read that Northern Lights isn't a particularly smelly strain.
I would kill for temps that low. Right now I battle to keep it down to 80f, and below that is a good day. Get a tent and a 400w mh/hps and watch your temps settle perfectly.
My temp is perfect now that I moved my setup to the closet. It generally hovers between 72 and 75. The last major challenge that I have is figuring out the ventilation issue so that my whole house doesn't start to smell. That'll be a challenge as I can't make any modifications to the walls or ceiling.
I am having a similar issue with my basement grow tent being too cold, and am trying to find an alturnative for using a heater. Thinking about using a 100watt incadescent bulb to heat tent but worried it will mess up the light cycle when the plants need darkness. I heard using a green bulb will not affect the light cycle because the plants do not obsorb the green spectrum of light. Will using a 100watt green incondescent bulb fix my heat issue but not affect my lighting?
For everyone encountering too cold temps, i just successfully raised my temps 9 degrees fahrenheit for free. Only thing i did was moving the exhaust filter from the ceiling to the floor. I made sure air was not completely stagnant at the ceiling though. As we have snow now, and the heat signature is possible to detect, i did not want to add a space heater. That would make the signature obvious. Moving my exhaust just gave me heat, while reducing signature. I will move it to the ceiling when heat builds up next summer. now to pack a bowl