Keeping a Cold Room, within acceptable temperature... Winter PREP!

Hello all. I have a little dilemma... Actually I don't, but I already know soon I will, so I might as well start coming up with some solutions before it hits..

Here's the scenario...

My grow space is a 8x4 GrowLab, with a 1000w and a 400w. It's placed inside a garage. In my location, winters can get pretty cold, and the garage will probably get pretty cold too.

I'm trying to keep it in the garage and not have to move it indoors for certain family reasons. Although my room gets hot with the lights running, especially if I don't ventilate them, I'm not sure if they will really battle the cold. And in flowering, when the lights go out, I'm sure the temperature will drastically drop.

I'm looking for a solution. One product I found that seems to warm small places REALLY fast, and consistently are those synthetic fireplaces (not the real name, but I'm assuming some of you will know what I'm talkin about.) that they sell at Wal-Mart and Costco and places like that. I'm sure I can find some space heaters that maybe can battle it; but before I spend a bunch of money, I want to know what will work for sure????

I don't want something that just gets blatently hot, because before caring about heat, I worry more about safety.

So that will be the paramater:
1) Can battle weather that maybe on the coldest day may hit 0 degrees...
2) Won't catch on fire and burn my place down while I'm out

Anybody had a similar situation and found a solution? Anyone with a product or a technique in mind???

I was going to build an insolated box around my tent.... but that kinda defeats the whole purpose of me having bought the tent in the first place lol.

You should double your space, set up a flip flop, and use the extra lights to keep the space warm

FirstTracks said:

You should double your space, set up a flip flop, and use the extra lights to keep the space warm

Click to expand...

that's an awesome idea!

FirstTracks said:

You should double your space, set up a flip flop, and use the extra lights to keep the space warm

Click to expand...

Whoa, didn't even think of that one... That's a great idea!!! I just don't have the money to double my space though..... Now that I think of it though, when I put my hand up to my tent's exhaust from my lights, the air really isn't that hot, it's kinda just mild. Maybe if I replaced the 400 with another 1000 though, it would considerably heat up.

FirstTracks said:

You should double your space, set up a flip flop, and use the extra lights to keep the space warm

Click to expand...

BINGO !!!! i ran my whole shop thru the winter with 4,000 watts on all the time and recirculated the air in the shop. furnace never kicked on with winter temps below -30. i found a comfy 78 most the time and then vented thru windows after it started ta warm up in the spring.... its all about "BALANCE"

FirstTracks said:

You should double your space, set up a flip flop, and use the extra lights to keep the space warm

Click to expand...

This right here is an awesome idea all around...

If you can't do that, a combination of shutting off you're exhaust and having a nice space heater should do the trick nicely.

The flip flip would be way better, though.

I wish I could do the flip, but I'm just not sure how I'd afford to double up my space.. That would be new lights, new fans, a couple more grand lol.... Maybe after a few more grows I can do that, but then I'll be back into summer time.... lol

Funny thing is I just bought my AC about a month and a half ago... now already I have to figure out the opposite lol...

Thanks guys for your suggestions!

Understandable. In all seriousness, the space heater should do just fine... I grew herb in an uninsulated attic loft for a couple years and managed to keep temps in check using one.

Howdy Keyz..

I use an oil radiator heater... my room about 4 times as big.. but the nice thing is.. they have thermostatic control... as long as they are not within.. 12" they are fine to the plant cause I doubt you would have it turned up to high..

check em out.. what you suggest ought to work well too... with the oil radiators you don't have ANY flammably hot surface though...


[


QUOTE=Keyz;3883197]Hello all. I have a little dilemma... Actually I don't, but I already know soon I will, so I might as well start coming up with some solutions before it hits..

Here's the scenario...

My grow space is a 8x4 GrowLab, with a 1000w and a 400w. It's placed inside a garage. In my location, winters can get pretty cold, and the garage will probably get pretty cold too.

I'm trying to keep it in the garage and not have to move it indoors for certain family reasons. Although my room gets hot with the lights running, especially if I don't ventilate them, I'm not sure if they will really battle the cold. And in flowering, when the lights go out, I'm sure the temperature will drastically drop.

I'm looking for a solution. One product I found that seems to warm small places REALLY fast, and consistently are those synthetic fireplaces (not the real name, but I'm assuming some of you will know what I'm talkin about.) that they sell at Wal-Mart and Costco and places like that. I'm sure I can find some space heaters that maybe can battle it; but before I spend a bunch of money, I want to know what will work for sure????

I don't want something that just gets blatently hot, because before caring about heat, I worry more about safety.

So that will be the paramater:
1) Can battle weather that maybe on the coldest day may hit 0 degrees...
2) Won't catch on fire and burn my place down while I'm out

Anybody had a similar situation and found a solution? Anyone with a product or a technique in mind???

I was going to build an insolated box around my tent.... but that kinda defeats the whole purpose of me having bought the tent in the first place lol.[/QUOTE]

I've been looking at space heaters online all day... What size (watts, btu) would you guys recommend for my space??? Maybe a 5000 btu (1500 w)???? Do you think that would cover me on the coldest day?

I saw some at Lowes.com that we made for heating garages and workspaces, I'm thinking maybe one of those will do me best. I just have to make sure I get one that has dials on it instead of the push buttons. That way when I get this enviromental controller, it'll come on without me having to go in and manually push "power" (made that mistake with my first portable AC lol)

bergerbuddy said:

Howdy Keyz..

I use an oil radiator heater... my room about 4 times as big.. but the nice thing is.. they have thermostatic control... as long as they are not within.. 12" they are fine to the plant cause I doubt you would have it turned up to high..

check em out.. what you suggest ought to work well too... with the oil radiators you don't have ANY flammably hot surface though...

Click to expand...

Thanks Berger. I actually have one in the basement somewhere, I'm gonna pull it out in the morning and see if it still has some life left in it

I've got a similar problem coming up this winter. Except I'm indoor. Temps will get below 0, and I have no heating in this house. I'm using a tent, and I hope it will stay warm enough under the 400w. But I've already been to Lowe's and have checked out the different Heater fans. A couple of them look safe, and are fairly inexpensive. You might want to look into heater fans(basically a normal fan, with a heating element behind the blades).

Just a warning about an oil heater, if it works the same way as a kerosene heater, by burning the oil (how else would it make heat?) then it is a fire hazard. All of my mothers tomatoes and peppers were completely ruined when the kerosene heater malfunctioned and you couldn't even see into the greenhouse, there was a thick coating of soot on absolutely everything.

Maybe that's 1 in a million, but I'd only go with electric, even if it is slightly more expensive to maintain.

the 3rd one down looks very promising and affordable. Place it in the room, and exhaust as usual i would suppose.


http://www.heatersonsale.com/652-heater-fans-electric-buy-sell-review.heat

Optimus H-1382 Portable 2-Speed Oscillating Fan Heater

Description : A great money-saving alternative to heating the entire home, this energy-efficient portable fan heater delivers comfortable warmth where it's needed most. The unit features two heat settings at 750 and 1500 watts, plus a thermostat that helps regulate the heat automatically. To help better distribute the heat throughout the room, its motorized oscillating base rotates a full 90 degrees.
Keywords : Optimus H-1382 Portable 2-Speed Oscillating Fan Heater
Price : $26.04 USD

NinjaCS said:

the 3rd one down looks very promising and affordable. Place it in the room, and exhaust as usual i would suppose.


http://www.heatersonsale.com/652-heater-fans-electric-buy-sell-review.heat

Optimus H-1382 Portable 2-Speed Oscillating Fan Heater

Description : A great money-saving alternative to heating the entire home, this energy-efficient portable fan heater delivers comfortable warmth where it's needed most. The unit features two heat settings at 750 and 1500 watts, plus a thermostat that helps regulate the heat automatically. To help better distribute the heat throughout the room, its motorized oscillating base rotates a full 90 degrees.
Keywords : Optimus H-1382 Portable 2-Speed Oscillating Fan Heater
Price : $26.04 USD

Click to expand...

For $26 bucks I can grab one just to try it out.... I've decided I'm definitely gonna use a space heater... Now I'm just trying to find one and a big enough one to definitely battle it off... I'm hoping by the beginning of Nov, I can grab an environmental controller, that way, between my exhaust turning off during the day, heater at night, hopefully I can battle through the cold months