Indoor Winter growing indoors - temp issues

[Cantus II]

Ok so, I am a few weeks from the end of my first grow, which hasn't been great due to a few issues which I think are pretty much corrected now. I want to get my next grow started as soon as this one is cropped, but the problem I am facing is that I live in the UK, and the building I live in is a very old listed building with no central heating or anything, all it has for heat is a wood burner in the front room.

My grow tent is tucked away in large old cupboard drawing air from a big well ventilated main hall and venting into my bedroom. I spoke to my friend who has lived here longer than me and he reckons temps can get as low as 4 or 5 ([FONT=arial, sans-serif]°[/FONT]C) in the coldest months. Obviously this is no good for my grow. My lighting is one dual spectrum 300w CFL (I'm only growing 2 plants at a time in a 60x60x140cm tent) which probably isn't going to be kicking out anywhere near enough heat to keep the tent warm enough on 24/0, considering it's generally hovering just below 20 degrees with lights out at the moment (I'm on 20/4 for this grow), and even that isn't ideal.

So, are there any cost effective ways I can keep the tent warm enough over the winter? I was wondering if there any particular strains that can still do alright at lower temps? I was looking into those small cylindrical greenhouse heaters, but I'm not sure if they will give enough heat unless I buy a lot of them, which is probably going to start getting expensive on electric. If there is no easy way then I might just have to admit defeat and wait for warmer weather for my next grow, really don't want to go back to shelling out £10 a gram for sub standard weed again all winter though

 

[wwwillie]

Hey!
By the sound of i you are not in the US as am I, but hopefully you can get one. I use an oil filled radiator, electric type. It has 600, 900, 1500 watt settings. My tent is in the basement and we do not heat above 45F in the day when no one is home and only 55F at night when we sleep. Needless to say it gets darn chilly down there! I took a bunch of old blankets and sleeping bags and covered the tent for insulation and running the heater at the 6oo watt setting kept things fairly well. The heater cost about $40.00 US.
Hope that helps. I think too ,even when you add up all the expense and find you may be paying more!! That the product you get is far superior in so many way that it more than makes up for it!
Peace and happy growing!

 

[Cantus II]

Thanks for the reply! What's the electric usage like on one of those radiators? Just because money is pretty tight (I'm a student), and I'm already using just under £1 a day on the light and fans, which added up over 3 months is a fair bit already.

 

[Muddy]

I see two options for you, run your lights 24/0 or put a small space heater in your tent. I use a 1,500 watt space heater in my outdoor grow box. It's on a timer so it only runs during lights out. I have my exhaust fan on a variable speed controller so I can adjust the flow way down. It's just barely pulling in enough fresh air without sucking all the heat out.

In my experience once soil temps drop below about 60 degrees your can start to run into deficiencies, especially phosphorus, which gets locked out at cold temps. The plants more or less stop growing until soil temps are raised. There may be some strains that will tolerate the cold better than others but you need to keep those soil temps up.

 

[wwwillie]

Thanks for the reply! What's the electric usage like on one of those radiators? Just because money is pretty tight (I'm a student), and I'm already using just under £1 a day on the light and fans, which added up over 3 months is a fair bit already.

Do you know your electric rate? $$/KWH or something like that. We can use that to figure costs.

 

[Cantus II]

Do you think running the lights 24/0 will provide enough heat using a CFL though?

 

[Muddy]

Do you think running the lights 24/0 will provide enough heat using a CFL though?

Possibly. They do put out a fair amount of heat. You may also want to put a variable speed controller on your exhaust fan to slow it down and help keep the heat inside the tent. Even still, you may even need a space heater while the lights are on.

 

[Cantus II]

Not sure of the actual electric rates, I'll have to ask my friend who owns the place. We have one of those usage meters that shows the estimated cost per hour of total usage in the building. When I first set up the tent I got everyone else who lives here to turn off all their electrical stuff and it figured out at just under 5p per hour for the grow setup alone I think.

Ok, so looks like I'm probably gonna need a heater of some sort, or risk wasting my time and money all together if I try it using just 24/0 lights with the CFL and we get a really cold spell. Me and my other housemate were actually considering going halves on a new tent with more floor space and another 300w CFL, to get 4 plants in there, and then splitting the crop, so maybe doing that and putting a heater in there, and splitting the electric costs would make it more affordable for me, I'll have to speak to him later. Thanks for the advice guys!