Do tents have heat problems?

I hear that grow tents have heat problems.

How would a tent of X amount sq ft have heat issues greater than a grow room partitioned with drywall also of X amount of sq ft?

I have a Sentinel CHHC-1 computer, portable A/C, bottled C02, Humidifier, Dehumidifier, etc for controls, and air cooled lights.

I have a Grow Lab 145L(5x9x6'7) tent coming in the mail am wondering how I might still run into heat issues.

with a portable a/c and air cooled lights? im going to go with no......... you should be fine

Think the only reason Tents have heat problems is because the heat coming off the light in such small areas. I always have about 8-10 degree high tempts when tent is closed. When it is opened, I dont have any problems, and the tent is inside of a small closet.

I see many well-learned growers here successfully use tents AND over come the heat with adequate venting, BUT I also see a new thread here evey week saying I AM TOSSING THE TENT.

I run a 1000 watt hps in my 5x5 tent with no heat issues. I have an air cooled hood with a can fan just for the light and another to exhaust the tent. works great 78 degrees at the highest!

I use a tent also and have no heat problems. I purchased the whole set canfan and cooltube. in the summer if its not a problem in your wallet to run a portable ac then you should be golden. if you grow in your basement with a tent you shouldnt have any heat issues. and if your basement is to big for your portable ac to cover take some poly and hang it around the tent and give yourself 3ft on each side of the tent and place your portable ac in there with your tent. that lil square area should always be dark so when your lights turn off you dont need to worry about your bottom flaps. they could stay open to keep drawing fresh air in. just my 2 cent cuz thats the way I had my setup before I moved. just waiting for the furnice guy to come and service my oil burner then back to the basement.

hope everything goes well with your tent

u can cut the poly around the dehumidifier so the back end is outside the square so the heat could go out of the square. remember if you are in a basement the reason for the square is to make a smaller room for yourself to be able to control the enviroment inside and out and also you dont have to use no plywood or sheetrock.

yea heat is really mangable if you have proper ventialtion dont even need ac but its nice to have as a back up or a really hot day

I have ur exact set up and run it at 85 all day no probs. drop it down to 65 at night.
You will have to probs.

bigb1987 said:

I have ur exact set up and run it at 85 all day no probs. drop it down to 65 at night.
You will have to probs.

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I understand people saying that they use an extra fan to exhaust, but how can you do that running CO2 without wasting C02?

My controls are for a closed system: air cooled light(sucks cool air in through a vent and spits hot air out through another vent), portable a/c, and bottled c02. Is this the correct way for properly cooling while running a C02 system.

I am having major problems with heat in my 8X4X4X6.5 tent. So much so that I am going to get a portable air conditioner tomorrow (7000 BTU) that has a built in dehumidifier. My biggest problem is I can't vent it out a window so I am *hoping* I can use a charcoal filter (home made) on the vent hose and have that outside the tent but running directly into my basement - I am worried that moisture will come out of that vent and clog/ruin the charcoal filter system I was going to put on it. Currently I have a can-fan and can-filter but to be honest it is good for smell but not for managing heat.

Anyway, not to hijack this thread I am going to go ask the same question re: AC and carbon filter in another one.

MagicA said:

I am having major problems with heat in my 8X4X4X6.5 tent. So much so that I am going to get a portable air conditioner tomorrow (7000 BTU) that has a built in dehumidifier. My biggest problem is I can't vent it out a window so I am *hoping* I can use a charcoal filter (home made) on the vent hose and have that outside the tent but running directly into my basement - I am worried that moisture will come out of that vent and clog/ruin the charcoal filter system I was going to put on it. Currently I have a can-fan and can-filter but to be honest it is good for smell but not for managing heat.

Anyway, not to hijack this thread I am going to go ask the same question re: AC and carbon filter in another one.

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So your growing in your basement and will be venting the heat into the basement? Depending on several factors, you're basically going to be creating your own homemade HID heater. You need to push the air out to some other room(s) and allow fresh cool air to be pulled into the basement. as long as your able to get the hot air out of the tent and out of the basement, your basement should stay at a reasonable temp.

I don't se the tents being any worse then a closet grow. Probably can be better since the walls are less insulated and can dissipate heat a bit better then a closet.

Now that said, where you stuff the tent can negate that advantage.

The tent won't solve heat problems nor cause them over a closet.

But you need to look at the entire system.

I've said many times to set up your room, and run it for a few days recording the temps/RH with no plants. Then dial in the tweaks to make it right.

So test it and get it right before the plants go in. Closet, room, warehouse, tent, etc.

I'd say you may need to modify your tent. I have a GL80 and i had to add several 6" flanges (GL doesn't make these, you have to buy those for other tents). this required thinking through equipment, future additions, etc... since you have to cut new holes. I had heat issues when using 4" ducting in the 5" holes/sleeves. the rectangular vents are ok, but you would need to modify those too to keep out bugs, etc.. and light. So i removed the 5" holes and turned them into 6" to allow for more air to flow in, but not enough to eliminate the negative pressure (for odor control). you should be able to get the temps to be around 4-8 degrees above the exterior room temp.

carbon filters won't aid in heat issues, they will remove smell but they will increase the rooms temp a bit. all you have to do is turn up the fan and your temps will drop, that is if your fan can pull any harder.

You can have 2 inline fans - one that is on when the light is on and the other can be on a temperature controller to turn on when the grow room gets to hot:

duct -> tent -> duct -> cooltube -> duct -> tent -> fan -> duct -> outside or somewhere (doesn't vent the tent)




duct -> tent -> plants - carbon filter -> duct -> tent -> duct-> fan -> duct -> vent outside or somewhere else

this setup can also be modified to keep the CO2 in the tent for a specified time with the right timers.

smoking chef said:

I run a 1000 watt hps in my 5x5 tent with no heat issues. I have an air cooled hood with a can fan just for the light and another to exhaust the tent. works great 78 degrees at the highest!

Click to expand...

this would be one of the most adequete ways to co0l i would say in a tent if your using big lights u should have a air co0lexd ho0d.,.,for the light is in a small place and if u have ure tent in a closet u have to worry bout getn fresh air in the closet for the fresh air to be in the tent,.,.,

I have the exhaust and co2 on different timers. the first hour the lights are on is co2 with no exhaust. Then co2 off for 15 minutes and exhaust on then co2 on exhaust off. and so on till lights off than exhaust on till lights on in the morning. Took a while to get the timing right but works great I will eventually go to a control board of some kind or digital timers.

AC unit is working great but that is with it being vented into the basement.. now I have smell issues which is kind of retarded as I already have a filter and fan in there for that purpose. I can't vent the AC outside (wind or roll windows) and it wouldn't be cleaned or scrubbed air anyway. Having said that it works fine the way it is; so could I just put an odorsok or something onto the AC outlet vent (5" ~200 cfm) to get rid of the odor or will the AC unit freak out with any sort of back pressure? I thought about a wye tee for the filter but I just don't think that would work.

Thanks in advance!

MagicA, keep in mind that your A/C will kill a great deal of the humidity. Is there a bathroom in the grow room? You can vent through the bathroom exhaust fan.

Thank you for all of your helpful posts. As of right now I have placed my A/C and dehumidifer on one of the $79.95 wire rack systems from Home Depot. I placing Panda film are the wire wrack to make a chamber around the shelf the A/C and Dehumidifier are on. I will be exhausting the hot air into this chamber and having the cold air from this chamber passively move into the tent through negative pressure. This system should allow me to have no CO2 waste.

Growing in tents is no different than pandaform made rooms. The issue of heat rising temperatures is more visible in these types of setups because there is little material to absorb heat. Whereas if you grow in a wardrobe or similar, firstly the wardrobe/a section of your house, has to warm up first before temps really start to climb. The end result is the same if you do not have adequite ventilation. They both end up at the same temperature, just that the tents/pandarooms get there faster. The source of the heat problem though is the same. Need to get that hot air out of the house.