Making LED work in a cool basement?

@olegren Diy humidifiers (ultrasonic variety). https://www.rollitup.org/t/jbs-cheapo-diy-large-capacity-ultrasonic-humidifier.956647/post-15276653

You can buy cheap, single disc units on amazon for...$10-15. Then all you need is a cheap little pc fan (you can get ones that are usb powered and come with ac adapter), and a container (bucket, tote, ect.).
One single unit might not keep up with a constant air exchanging setup, if the "lung" or secondary area is really dry. But if running it the way I understand @Khyber420 is (only exhausting do to temp or humidity?) than it'd help I think.
If constant air exchange, you can step up to a multi-disc unit, or just multiple of the singles - I guess.

@Khyber420 - nice! That's a really good idea and TBH i didn't realize you could find space heaters that run on such a low wattage. When I go lights out, mine are dipping down to around 16C, but I am going to try and mitigate with a bit more insulation in the tent (I still need to do walls + top) and heating mats under elevated pots to keep roots extra toasty. I thought I was going to need a DH regardless and was banking on some heat from that, but my RH is super low right now.

I ran the setup again last night and maxed temps at 29C and a whopping 18.5% RH. Light + Exhaust are definitely tanking my humidity. Exhaust was on lowest setting, but mine does have a temp/RH toggle. My concern there is that I want the thing running all the time for odor control once I hit flower.

@2com - I was reading about these earlier in the week and am intrigued. I think I could set one up in my exhaust room and then maybe run a line directly into tent, but I worry it would decrease my stealth given that I'd have a tote full of water sitting somewhere. They do sound preferable to the units on Amazon and elsewhere. I have a TaoTronics cool mist out for delivery today that I picked up on a whim. If I stuck with that, any recommendations on where I set it up? Placement in the tent is viable, but I worry a 1m high mist might spray my lights or create some other potential hazard. Was thinking of setting it up in lung room which remains 30-40% RH. Then I could run it on a separate breaker and keep its heat out of tent also.

Thanks, fellas!

Took the time to go through all of that DIY nebulizer thread. Incredible. If I could find a stealth way to do one of these, it seems like it would be plenty enough for my little tent; notwithstanding the exhaust issue. It also sounds like the unit I bought is pretty much the same thing -- just an overpriced version. At that point, the path forward seems pretty simple: Mitigate the lights on the thing, stick it in the tent, and see what happens tonight.

olegren said:

If I stuck with that, any recommendations on where I set it up? Placement in the tent is viable, but I worry a 1m high mist might spray my lights or create some other potential hazard.

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Hmm, I duno if that'd be a hazard to be honest. I doubt it, but someone else might have some insight on that. I think you'd have to have incredibly high rh to be an issue, or - obviously - if actual water droplets were getting at terminations/connection points, or accumulating on the surface(s) of the lights maybe, but I'd think that'd be caused by other environmental conditions (the accumulating/condensing).
There's a user (@couchlock I though, but that not popping up) who's using an amazon humidifier in a tent. Of course, it's just a tank of water that feeds down to an ultrasonic disc, lol. So it's the same as diy'ing one in a container, more or less. A store bought unit will have controls of some kind usually, analog or digital. If diy'ing you'd want a controller (like he inkbird cheap one).

So far, I've only used humidification in a drying room, not a growing room.
You might consider emailing houseofhydro.com and mentioning those concerns. And of course, ask others here.

olegren said:

Took the time to go through all of that DIY nebulizer thread. Incredible. If I could find a stealth way to do one of these, it seems like it would be plenty enough for my little tent; notwithstanding the exhaust issue. It also sounds like the unit I bought is pretty much the same thing -- just an overpriced version. At that point, the path forward seems pretty simple: Mitigate the lights on the thing, stick it in the tent, and see what happens tonight.

Click to expand...

Good idea

2com said:

Hmm, I duno if that'd be a hazard to be honest. I doubt it, but someone else might have some insight on that. I think you'd have to have incredibly high rh to be an issue, or - obviously - if actual water droplets were getting at terminations/connection points, or accumulating on the surface(s) of the lights maybe, but I'd think that'd be caused by other environmental conditions (the accumulating/condensing).
There's a user (@couchlock I though, but that not popping up) who's using an amazon humidifier in a tent. Of course, it's just a tank of water that feeds down to an ultrasonic disc, lol. So it's the same as diy'ing one in a container, more or less. A store bought unit will have controls of some kind usually, analog or digital. If diy'ing you'd want a controller (like he inkbird cheap one).

So far, I've only used humidification in a drying room, not a growing room.
You might consider emailing houseofhydro.com and mentioning those concerns. And of course, ask others here.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I think you're right. I did do some reading on my lights & fan, and both are fine to operate up to something absurd like 90% RH. I'm sure I can find a way to work with it.

Couch_Lock has talked me through a lot. Unfortunately it looks like he's moved on or is at least taking a break from posting. I actually ended up buying the same humidifier he got, so I'm sure it's a good choice.

2com said:

@olegren Diy humidifiers (ultrasonic variety). https://www.rollitup.org/t/jbs-cheapo-diy-large-capacity-ultrasonic-humidifier.956647/post-15276653

You can buy cheap, single disc units on amazon for...$10-15. Then all you need is a cheap little pc fan (you can get ones that are usb powered and come with ac adapter), and a container (bucket, tote, ect.).
One single unit might not keep up with a constant air exchanging setup, if the "lung" or secondary area is really dry. But if running it the way I understand @Khyber420 is (only exhausting do to temp or humidity?) than it'd help I think.
If constant air exchange, you can step up to a multi-disc unit, or just multiple of the singles - I guess.

Click to expand...

Yep just exhausting to manage humidity, that also gives me enough air exchange since it dumps every 10 mins or so. Plus I have one clip on fan running over the canopy inside the tent. And sorry I dont know why I said 60W, it's a 200W ceramic heater (off amazon), but since it's on the temp controller it's actually off most of the time.

I grow in a 3x3 tent in a new england basement. Ambient conditions are 30% humidity, mid to low 50's F, and about 500 ppm co2. I use about 300w of quantum boards with some supplemental leds for spectrum and a little extra wattage.

I simply put a small space heater in the tent to keep the temps up (on an external controller) to around 75 F. Even with the low room humidity, I still have to vent the tent to keep it down to 55% in veg (another controller). Finally, I have a c02 controller set for about 800 ppm (in veg, I'll kick it up for flower).

In the winter, I just exhaust the tent into the basement. In the summer I vent it outside.

I get very good yields and healthy plants.

YMMV. But it isn't impossible.

greg nr said:

I grow in a 3x3 tent in a new england basement. Ambient conditions are 30% humidity, mid to low 50's F, and about 500 ppm co2. I use about 300w of quantum boards with some supplemental leds for spectrum and a little extra wattage.

I simply put a small space heater in the tent to keep the temps up (on an external controller) to around 75 F. Even with the low room humidity, I still have to vent the tent to keep it down to 55% in veg (another controller). Finally, I have a c02 controller set for about 800 ppm (in veg, I'll kick it up for flower).

In the winter, I just exhaust the tent into the basement. In the summer I vent it outside.

I get very good yields and healthy plants.

YMMV. But it isn't impossible.

Click to expand...

@greg nr - Thanks for weighing in! Sounds like you are working in more difficult conditions than I am - nicely done!

It also makes sense to me that the plants themselves will add humidity; whereas right now I'm just testing with an empty tent. Tough to tell what that will bring, but encouraging to hear that you are having to actively vent humidity with no added source of RH beyond your plants. My fan has a RH/temp probe tied to its controller, but obviously I haven't needed to use it yet. Maybe it will come in handy.