heated mat/cables

[Greenfingers420uk]

Good day all, Do any of you use any sort of heat under your pots ? ive been thinking of doing this for a while as the root zone is just as important as the canopy.

My cupboard floor is 1.2 x 1.0 and i can cover the floor with 3 inches of kiln dried sand.

 

your thoughts please.

[KC]

If you buy 2 large root it matts they'll cover your space, they're 1.2m by 0.5m I believe. A thermostat is a good idea too so they don't get too warm. 

Keeping the roots warms certainly makes a difference in the cold spells. 

[BilgePump]

I built my heating rig out of a tube heater and insulation board ...

I run it off a thermostatic controller (habitat pulse) with the sensor here ..

That's about 3 o'clock in the bigger pics.

 

Works a treat if I do say so myself, I based the idea on a Roman hypocaust type set-up, the things we remember from primary school eh?

 

If you decide to go with heat mats have a look at Romberg examples, they're a bit bigger.

 

[The Villan]

I will be getting the romberg 115 x 115 skinny mat in the next month . Not cheap, but I am always wary of the electric blanket I have been using for the past 5 years.

Vill

[MindSoup]

1 hour ago, Greenfingers420uk said:

ive been thinking of doing this for a while as the root zone is just as important as the canopy.

 

More important in my experience. For quite a while all I ran was a heat mat set to keep my soil at 24, air Temps where swinging from 29 to 19 and the plants where happy as can be the whole time. I only started controlling air temps again in order to control stretch. 

 

@RUFUS HOUND has a heated sand bed like your suggesting and it seems to be working really well for him 

[KC]

I've just checked, the large root it mat is 40cm wide not 50cm.

 

Just now, The Villan said:

I will be getting the romberg 115 x 115

Any reason you're going for this rather than the root it options? The certainly aren't cheap are they!  

[The Villan]

hello @KC I ordered the 95x95cm one for my room when I started the pupsxx grow. I was too small for my room which I think is 50ins x 50ins. The 115x115 will fit it perfectly and all the pots will be on the mat instead of hanging over

[purepotstill]

Got a 1x1m BioGreen Sahara heatmat. Not cheap, but sturdy and efficient, and it comes with the thermostat. Very good product.

@BilgePump: smart design, and cheap if you already had the recticel. Romans were the best engineers we had in Europe.

[BilgePump]

@purepotstill I got the recticel free from a roofer mate off who borrowed it from site  

 

The wooden frame was 4 pallet slats and 4 cheap L brackets, aside from the heater/stat the most expensive bit was the spray can of adhesive

 

[Guest Micromole Hole]

Sorry to bump in this thread - Do those inkbirds control multiple mats? Or do you have to have them individually? 

[BilgePump]

@Micromole Hole Depends on the inkbird mate but if you get the dedicated heat ones they have two sockets for heaters and just make sure you don't overload em

 

Only one sensor though, so bare that in mind.

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by BilgePump

[RUFUS HOUND]

1 hour ago, Micromole Hole said:

Sorry to bump in this thread - Do those inkbirds control multiple mats? Or do you have to have them individually? 

depends on the model - the 308 has a socket for heating and a socket for cooling 

I just got a 310 and it has 2 heating sockets and multiple temps and times but as said only 1 sensor - if you want the mats the same temp plug a 3 way block adaptor into the heat socket and the inkbird can control all 3 at sameish temp using the sensor in 1 of your pots.

 

The heated sand bed works spot on  for my needs anyway - works out way cheaper than big heat mats

I have a 6m 90w heating cable looped back and forth on a bed of sand in a grow bag tray, then covered with more sand (60x120, 2x4' tent) about 3 inch total. Has the added bonus that your runoff goes direct into sand and help transfer the heat.

 

forgot to add - this isnt the heat source for the tent air temps but it will of course add a bit overall, thats the job for the oil rad - this is for the roots 

Edited February 6, 2023 by RUFUS HOUND

[Davey Jones]

The Inkbirds don’t advertise any approvals that I can see. Using it to control a fan is one thing, if it breaks the plants lose airflow and your house is still standing. You lose a crop at worst and get a lesson that toy electronics designs aren’t fit for use in grows or industry 

 

Using cheap Chinese electronics with no approvals is quite another thing. Controlling a heater is a safety critical application. If it goes wrong you can hurt yourself and others. It’s not worth it 

 

I wouldn’t recommend anyone does that. It might work but does it work when things go wrong is what really matters and it goes wrong in ways and at times we never imagined it  would or could. Functional safety is an entire discipline of engineering 

 

But they couldn’t sell it it was dangerous has many counter examples

 

Probably not what people want to hear but surely better to hear it now than to learn later when it’s too late

 

A cheap Honeywell stat is going to be much safer than the crap that goes into Chinese designs

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Davey Jones

[MindSoup]

Pretty sure Honeywell stuff is all made in China as well and I'd have thought the mats would have built in thermal protection. On top of that they don't even get that hot so not much risk of they relay gets stuck. 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by MindSoup

[RUFUS HOUND]

didnt know about approvals but inkbirds are far from cheap crap chinese electronics, they are well made, good quality and robust devices (I hate using that term) - most things are made in china including honeywell products, its about time people stopped all this cheap chinese rubbish rhetoric and based it on the product.

 

I choose inkbird based on all the glowing testiments from members - I do have a cheap chinese rubbish temp controller and trust me the inkbirds are in a different league.