Hi all

Just preparing for the first grow after a year of nail biting waiting. But its pretty cold outside these days, and winter is coming.

Considering enviros give off little heat, (MG Envirolites - 2 x blue for veg 2 x red for flower), do you think a wardrobe in a garage in the north of england will be too cold to grow successfully????????

Advice - tips - knowledge - appreciated.



B8

Hi mate,

i've got a similar GR in a shed, low temps was a prob for me a first but i got a 1KW fan heater at B&Q - it keeps the room at around 75 constant. I thought it would be on all the time but i really doesnt come on that often (its hot a built in thermostat)

(Oh, i'm on 2 enviros as well)

Pzlr.

Hey Puzzler - been watching your grow diary m8 - impressive! and similar setup to me so a little inspirational too.


It would be possible to get a heater - Doesn't it eat electricity though? And do the warm enviros heat the place up a bit anyway?



B8

My grow is in a garage and low temps were bit of a problem, I had the Enviros coming on during the day and off at night.............DUH!

I now have the Enviros on at night which keeps the temps up fine during this period and off during the day. I use a 3kw heater, one of those ones with a built in timer from Argos and have this coming on and off, 15 minutes on and 30 minutes off, during the day which is doing the trick. The radiator is not a solid panel one, but has slots in it and is situated by one of the passive intakes so it draws warm air in through the radiator.

Im my GR piccies you'll see I tried to secure an oil filled rad to the rear wall, however I could only fit it in on it's side and for some reason only the top of the rad got hot. With the extractor at the top pulling this air straight out it made no differnce to GR temps, so it's been removed.

Reckon it'll depend a lot on how big your GR is though and how your garage is situated, you've just got to get started and fine tune your own environment as there's so many variables.

Details of my GR and grow in my sig, good luck mate.

saw some very small oil radiators in argos, just right for small grow areas.

One of them is a 500W and it says 3p per hour running cost (im guessing it is because it is oil)

Im now wondering what the minimum temp for a growth could be?

Also, just thinking, you need to adjust the height between the lights and the plants.
As the top of the grow room is probably warmer than the bottom you could raise the plants to the lights instead of lowering the lights to the plants during the cold months.

Im sure that would add a degree or two.

Just a small thought (all I'm capable of at this time in the morning on a sunday!)...
Just make sure the heaters you get have no LED or other type of on/off light indicator
if it has, make sure you can devise a way of killing any light it as you don't want any expanded chance of hermies (miriam's)!


dikki

For under 60 you can order two things on line that'll make for heating and extra flower stage light.

1x Biggest mougal/utility reflector combo
1x 70/150 (150 will get you closer to 100) Secruity HPS light w/ light sensor

You unscrew the original mogual on the refelctor (the ratings don't seem to be enough to handle the bulb on the original so you'll need to replace it...try it at your own risk) then somehow manage you push the mogual from the HPS in from the back add some extra 14 guage to extend the light in the dish and hang it from some rope with a loop and a bit of metal or whatever wrapped to keep it looped with an eyehook. Attach the front cage that usually comes with it to protect your plants from growing into it and power up....

The HPS comes with no plug so you'll need a male plug end and a run of wire for this as well...also you'll need to pull the light sensor whichi s fairly easy. If you can't figure it out head over to overgrow.com and look in the lighting section.

A bit of dryer duct with one end squashed flat and zip tied to the dish also makes for good air intake or extraction straight away from the bulb, but since you wish to warm the place up you can skip this and just use a small PC fan to circulate the air around...it's sort of a convection effect. If it's too much for 'em in the space you've got then do the venting with a very tiny inlet to control temps.

Sounds pretty good CkYabis, is this fire proof though? I'm thinking of something along those lines and don't want to mess up with a fire

I've opted for the thermostat controlled heater, meant for a greenhouse, which was about £20 from B&Q. Bit of a strange thermostat in that it doesn't have temps on it - just four settings, so you have to work out yourself which temps they corrospond with!??!!!


This was the cheapest option with minimum fire risk. The extra HPS would have been nice, and might be for the next time. For now though, lets get through this with change in our pockets.

Thanks for the advice all - should be starting a diary soon

B8

Hey there dude,

sounds like the same heater i bought. If it is i have the power set on '1' (the options are either 1 or 2) and the thermostat set to number '3'. It was a exercise to work out the best setting though, i just put it in the grow and started it on a low setting - left it for an hour, checked the temp, adjusted up a little, tested... until i had it maintaining the temp at around 75-80. Its worked perfectly now for 2 months ish.

Pzlr.

how big are they then?