Need Heat For My Grow

Well, it's winter again and my LED fixtures work well at keeping heat down in the grow area - too well as a matter of fact. Last year I was surprised and just added in a milk can heater that I already had. This year I'm thinking I should get some light as well as heat for my watts/dollars expended. My grow area is about 3.5 x 4.5 and I typically run lights on at night. I'm considering adding a small HID lamp…probably bare bulb.

I was thinking that I could plug a thermostat into a timer controlled electrical outlet so the light could only come on 1) when it's the right time of "day" and 2) would come on when it was too cold during the "day" and turn off when its too hot. I think that this thermo would work - http://growershouse.com/blueprint-day-night-temperature-controller-btc-1 ...but looking for your thoughts….

I'll need a ballast that stops itself from a hot restart as that's bad for bulbs.

What wattage do you think that I'll want? I'm thinking a single bulb of 150 or 250 watts. Maybe I should get one that's dimmable so I've got more or less heat if I need it. MH or HPS…or get both and have MH for veg and HPS for flower…or…? Of course, I realize that every thing that it does costs money. As far as that goes, I'd like to keep costs under control but don't want to cheap myself out of a highly usable and reliable piece of gear…so think quality edging out cost...

I appreciate your ideas...

Can you have a separate area for flowering and dump the heat from that into your vegging area?

What are your temps and rh levels?

Well, how much heat do you need? Perhaps an array of 8-10 good CFLs will do what you need, and there won't be a ballast or expensive HID bulb to burn out.

In doing it with CFLs, you could move them around even to better aim your supplemental light.

-spek

1 x 500w halogen floodlight... For those crispy budz...

re-circ your exhaust?

I don't have a separate veg/flower area at this time…but I am looking at my space again. Heating with fluorescent is possible but I think that we'd be talking quite a few watts and not a huge amount of additional useful light throughout the grow area. I could put in a couple of 125 watters so might get the heat…but I wonder how much useful light that will be as compared to a MH or HPS? My experience with CFL is that it's only good for inches…whereas one of the main strengths of HID is penetration. I'd guess that just for heat, the milk can heater isn't bad but I want useful light in addition hence the thoughts of HID.
For lighting, I've been using a combo of diy and Kessil H350s. The diys are a combo of XML, XML-2, XTE, philipps luxeon es in mostly WW, some CW, deep red, red and a little royal blue

I added a single 3' T5HO to either side of my LED panel this round, which has increased my temps enough to get my tent up to an ideal range. FWIW, I've got a 4x4 tent, so similar growing footprint.