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how to heat a small 1mx1m box

I

Invisible Rasta

Member
hello guys, i am setting up a small box with led lights and i notused that since the room is very cold (10-14C during the day) i will need a very small heater. What do you guys suggest?I do not want a 500-600W heater as it is way too much and consumes way too much energy. I could build something if u guys have any good ideas
 
Natural high

Natural high

Member
I wouldn't waste money on heaters before trying a 600w hps. Heat and ample light in one package. LED don't produce enough heat in cold conditions unless they are drawing a considerable quantity of true watts.
 
R

ronbo51

Member
Veteran
use a seed propagation mat under your pots. It will make the soil warmer and raise the ambient temp some
 
troutman

troutman

Seed Whore
Maybe a small tub filled with water and an aquarium heater will give you want you want.

If you can set your little grow box as high as possible in the room as heat rises.

Unless you can bring the temps to at least 20C the plants won't grow fast.
 
Natural high

Natural high

Member
Is this box only 1m high? If so my suggestion of a 600w hps is obviously not suitable, but a 250w might help, combined with a heat mat as suggested by ronbo51.
 
troutman

troutman

Seed Whore
I have a 200 watt aquarium heater for my 90 gallon aquarium and you can dial it down.

Once the water gets warm it will keep his grow box warm I bet.
 
U

Ununionized

Invisible Rasta said:
what do you guys think about a honeywell thermostat like this one
https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-RT...TF8&qid=1514578153&sr=1-4&keywords=thermostat

connected to a
https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Product...id=1514578205&sr=1-1&keywords=150+desk+heater
Click to expand...

Your heater looks like about the right idea, you should be able to find a plug-in thermostat somewhere, I never used one yet but I think they're becoming more common.

I think - maybe, this

https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Programmable-Thermostat-Temperature-Controller/dp/B01A6UZQX4

Then this - https://www.amazon.com/bayite-Temperature-Controller-Thermostat-Pre-wired/dp/B01KMA6EAM

I'm not sure the one you showed is naturally going to switch 120/240 is why I'm kinda saying... Uh...
 
U

Ununionized

I looked on the questions being asked for this one, and the people say that it's really designed for a brood box, this kinda thing. I think it's real, because brood boxes, those are peoples' livestock birds so you probably have some decent features with this, I dunno.

Maybe like this one? It's cheaper, seems pretty feature loaded, you can get it Prime:

https://www.amazon.com/DIGITEN-Ther...sr=1-1-spons&keywords=thermostat+outlet&psc=1

Oh I found this one too: NINETEEN HUNDRED PEOPLE bought it so it's probably ok for general usage:

https://www.amazon.com/Lux-Heating-...rd_wg=M9K2h&psc=1&refRID=CNZJMDAJZ9VEDDRC1ARN
 
A

Athos

Member
I use 60 watts of LED lights and have succesfully kept the grow box at 23 to 25 celsius with ambient temperatures of 5 celsius.

The trick is to use a small enough fan.
 
A

Athos

Member
My grow box inside dimensions are: height 97 cm (3.2 ft) x width 57 cm (1.9 ft) x depth 37 cm (1.2 ft) for a total of 0,2 m³ (7.2 ft³).

I used the formula found somewhere in this forum to plan my exhaust system. CFM needed = 3.16 * watts / Delta T (°F)
where Delta T (°F) is the difference between your ambient temperatures and the target temperature. In my case it was like this
Ambient T°C (°F) - Target T°C (°F) - CFM required assuming 30% loss due to carbon filter
00 (32 F)------------24 (75 F)------------6.3
05 (41 F)------------24 (75 F)------------7.9
10 (50 F)------------24 (75 F)-----------10.7
15 (59 F)------------24 (75 F)-----------16.7
20 (68 F)------------29 (84 F)-----------16.7

The idea is to take advantage of the heat generated by the lights themselves to keep an ideal temperature... too cold in winter? grow autoflowers in 20/4 or 24/0. Too cold at night in spring or autumn? plan ahead so your flowering lights on period happens at night.

Anyway, with that range of CFM, I got the Noctua A6 FLX 17CFM and use it with a variable voltage walll adapter and I undervolt it (as low as 4.5 V it gives around 6 CFM) depending on the season and lights on / off period
 
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