Hello all. Newish grower here. I’m 3 weeks in to my second crop and I’m loving this. I live In an area that is brutal both during the winter and summer. My grow is setup in my uninsulated detached garage. I built a 5x5x8 insulated room in the garage. I ran my ventilation just like how they are on the typical grow tents. Heat during the summer was easy as I installed an air conditioner in the grow room I built. But here is my question. How do I heat it during the winter? I have an oil filled heater, but logic tells me it wouldn’t be able to heat anything if I’m pulling cold air in at the typical ventilation rates constantly. Heating the garage itself is not an option, neither is cutting holes in walls to my house. So what do you guys and gals do that grow in a similar type setup?
Run your grow lights at night, the coldest part of the day to try and keep more consistent day/night temps. Also help keep the plants the warmest they can be at the coldest part of the day. You could turn down your extractor fan a small bit maybe, and use oil filled radiator. With the air being pulled out slower the temps should go up a bit. Is your tent taking in air from the garage or from outside? Where does your exhaust air go?
HPS Can heat during the light cycle if there is a unvented hood. Or by having the cool tube disconnected. As for night time. Idk maybe venting into the garage instead. But the garage being uninsulated would looses heat quickly.
The room is taking in air from the garage. And venting it out the garage. Also I’m using optic 6 led.
Id vent the air back into the garage to try keep as much warm air as possible. Id say you will loose alot of it though. Try insulate the building as well as possible and seal up any large gaps. Dont sit you tent directly on the cold concrete floor, put some pads or wood underneath. I use an optic 6 led, im in a 1 x 1 meter tent. Its 14 degrees c outside where I am, with my optic 6 on and a 150 watt heater on constant my tent is only 22 c. They optic lights dont put out a lot of heat. Maybe switch to a 600 watt hps for the winter, and run it at night? How cold are your temps getting with lights on and of at the moment? How cold does it get in the winter? Also watch your reservoir temps to you may need to get a water heater
The room I built to grow in inside the garage is very well insulated. I framed it out and insulated it just like a house. All four walls the floor and the roof. Just the cold air that will be vented in is what’s worrying me. I could seal it and run co2 but I wasn’t planning to have to budget for that till around next summer
Was going to suggest co2 but yeah mega costly. Storage heaters soak heat up through the day and slowly release it at night, they might be worth a look.
Duraflame Infrared Heater.!! $120 on amozon i think, I kept a 16x28 (450 sq ft) 9' ceiling,well insulated, attached garage at 60+ deg. all last winter, it does awesome, 3 or 4 times as good as oil filled radiators. lower your ventilation for the winter and the Duraflame will probably keep temps at bay. Eden Pure is the best Infrared made, it costs 3 times more, but it is repairable.
depends on your setup, if you grow auto's you could leave your light on for 23 hours a day and have a small heater on for an hour when the lights out if your not growing autos, have a veg room going with at least a 250hps and turn the intake fan off when the flower light off and set it up so it draws the warm air from the veg area, free heat have two flower rooms mixing the air and have one on AM and the other PM, just need to make it so you don't get light leaks ( I have done this and it works really well in the winter)