Warming up a tiny tent

[Mazer]

Greetings dear RIU folks,
I was working on a custom made LED light for tiny space. Two goals, 1-proper spectrum 2-low heat
goal 1 is achieved. I had the bestester LED experts on the WWW helping me with the design of my 100W light. Goal two is an overkill. With no ventilation whatsoever in a 2'x2'x5'high tent the temperature never goes beyond 85°F... that obviously is when the lights are on. when the lights are out, the temperature drops to 60°F. I am not crazy about a 25° drop.
SO I am looking at options to keep the tent warm(er). The tent is located in an outdoor storage place so that's why the drop is so important. I am thinking of 2 options:
1-insulating the tent with rockwool or a blanket
2-heating it up
I tried to put a 150W fishtank heater in a gallon jug but it does not do much.
Any recommendation?
PEACE PON U

 

[greg nr]

I've got a 3x3x6 tent and without a heater it will drop to 58 at night. It isn't so bad during the day but at this stage of veg I on;y have about 65w of light on so it's cool even during the day.

So what I did was put a small space heater in and connected it to a digital temp controller. The unit is set to kick on when the probe hits 68 and off when it hits 74. My high/low thermometer shows it is holding the plants to 72-74. There is a fan on constantly to distribute the heat.

I have another controller set up to my exhaust fan. It kicks on at 75 and off at 74.5. Maybe one out of 4 cycles it comes on and draws some fresh air in. When the weather warms a bit and I go full bore at around 450w (wall power draw) I'll change the coolling fan settings so it kicks in at about 80.

So this works for me and the external digital controller takes all the slop out of the heater control (the built in thermostat is crap). You can use virtually any heater that draws less than 1000 w with the controller I have.

 

[Mazer]

I've got a 3x3x6 tent and without a heater it will drop to 58 at night. It isn't so bad during the day but at this stage of veg I on;y have about 65w of light on so it's cool even during the day.

So what I did was put a small space heater in and connected it to a digital temp controller. The unit is set to kick on when the probe hits 68 and off when it hits 74. My high/low thermometer shows it is holding the plants to 72-74. There is a fan on constantly to distribute the heat.

I have another controller set up to my exhaust fan. It kicks on at 75 and off at 74.5. Maybe one out of 4 cycles it comes on and draws some fresh air in. When the weather warms a bit and I go full bore at around 450w (wall power draw) I'll change the coolling fan settings so it kicks in at about 80.

So this works for me and the external digital controller takes all the slop out of the heater control (the built in thermostat is crap). You can use virtually any heater that draws less than 1000 w with the controller I have.

Your solution sounds good! I was thinking about a similar approach. I will first try insulation as I have a fair bit available. If it does not suffice I will put in additional active heating.

 

[Dats]

I run one of these in a 24x48x60 tent. Its only 200watts and I use a timer 30mins on /off. In my unheated New england basement it keeps it 72 degrees. Saves power too since most space heaters are at least 750-1500 watts.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XDTWN2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[greg nr]

Just a nit, but watts are watts. Running a 200w heater for 15 minutes isn't much different than running a 600 watt heater for 5 minutes. Plus I already had the heater.

Of course the controller is slightly more expensive (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V4TJR00/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) than your heater, so I'll give you that.

 

[coreywebster]

Greetings dear RIU folks,
I was working on a custom made LED light for tiny space. Two goals, 1-proper spectrum 2-low heat
goal 1 is achieved. I had the bestester LED experts on the WWW helping me with the design of my 100W light. Goal two is an overkill. With no ventilation whatsoever in a 2'x2'x5'high tent the temperature never goes beyond 85°F... that obviously is when the lights are on. when the lights are out, the temperature drops to 60°F. I am not crazy about a 25° drop.
SO I am looking at options to keep the tent warm(er). The tent is located in an outdoor storage place so that's why the drop is so important. I am thinking of 2 options:
1-insulating the tent with rockwool or a blanket
2-heating it up
I tried to put a 150W fishtank heater in a gallon jug but it does not do much.
Any recommendation?
PEACE PON U

Well when you get some ventilation your 85 degrees will drop and you wont have a 25 degree drop anymore!
Or are you planning on running co2? If so you can get small grow tent heaters.

 

[Mazer]

Well when you get some ventilation your 85 degrees will drop and you wont have a 25 degree drop anymore!
Or are you planning on running co2? If so you can get small grow tent heaters.

Well I started another thread about diy co2 generator and it would be an option not to use ventilation then. I am just worried that the dank will get all the neighbors stoned if I don't use my carbon filter.

 

[coreywebster]

Well I started another thread about diy co2 generator and it would be an option not to use ventilation then. I am just worried that the dank will get all the neighbors stoned if I don't use my carbon filter.

That sounds cool if you can get away without having to filter, it will probably stink so it comes down to if your legal or bothered. Look forward to seeing how it all comes together.

 

[Mazer]

That sounds cool if you can get away without having to filter, it will probably stink so it comes down to if your legal or bothered. Look forward to seeing how it all comes together.

will definitely keep you posted

 

[Shugglet]

I tried to put a 150W fishtank heater in a gallon jug but it does not do much.

This may work if you put a radiator on it. I use the same concept for heating my micro grow.