Need supplemental heat

FluffyToke said:

you could just wrap a normal lightbulblet with tape or something, so it wouldn't be bright, and just use the heat from the bulb itself.

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Why not just use a heat lamp then ?

I just use a cheap fan heater (£10?). moves & heats the air with thermostat (will need to play a bit to get setting right/close enough).

Don't use a halogen etc as it will heat (& burn) the plants (and all) directly! & likely to cause damage or fire!

You need to warm the air not the plants!

Place the fan heater on the floor of ur grow box if you can... it should circulate the heat fine... obviously on full time not on timer, the in-built thermostat will mean that it does not run when heat is increased with lights.

SORTED!

Another idea is what I use around here during winter. A ceramic reptile cage heater. Screws into a regular socket and emits no light.
http://www.infraredheaters.com/petwarm.htm

scoped said:

what happens when the light has to go off for 12/12 say?
does the heat stay in the box, or dissapate?
scoped

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hey check it out i run my night cycle during the day
so plants can deal with winter day temps nothing below 70F

Hi Mr Minger, I'm looking for alternatives to fan heaters to keep things as safe as possible. I don't trust em enough. The cheap heaters I'm seeing lately are using plastic housing (Holmes is one manufacture of such). Like the expression says: whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Thanks though for your input!

FluffyToke, The lightbulblet wrapped with tape sounds like a fire waiting to happen? What are you smoking? Give me some of that too!

Hi pastor420! I like the reptile heater idea! A reptile electric blanket of sorts, sounds promising. Here's a site I found quick thats lists other uses for the thing. www.infraredheaters.com/ese.htm Funny, not in the list was the use as a supplemental heat source when growing pot. What kind of heat do these things put out?

Hi Benzo! Where do you live that daytime temps (in your box/grow room) don't go below 70F? Your idea of running the night cycle during the day is worth consideration. I only sleep 6 hours a night so should have no problem attending to maintenance items while the lights are on which would be when I get up from sleeping.

greenjumble, Your dad had some great ideas! Like father, like son! I'm presently using cfls for lighting in my box for mommies. See the pics I included.

what about just flame? light a candle or two buddy

Yeah an open flame will get things warmed up real quick but then there's a danged light issue during the dark period. Shit ass f-n light ruined that idea!

I read through all of these ideas...

I present a green incandescent light. The green light spectrum is not absorbed at night time and the plant thinks there is no light but you get all of the benefits of the heat and radiation from the light.

well, there's still light getting to the plant regardless of color, it's just slightly less

Not true, light is a mix of colors, I'm talking just green spectrum color. Plants do not see green, just like we can't see ultra violet but a plant can. It is just one of those things.

Hi DubB83,

From what I just read on the web, a simple explanation is that most of the color spectrum within light is absorbed by plants except for that of the green spectrum which bounces off plants back to our eyes. The colors seen in everyday objects are the ones that are not absorbed by these objects, rather they're reflected back at us to see.

An interesting idea and an inexpensive one. Thanks for your insight!

seriously tho, candles consume less energy

Quickset said:

Hi pastor420! I like the reptile heater idea! A reptile electric blanket of sorts, sounds promising. Here's a site I found quick thats lists other uses for the thing. www.infraredheaters.com/ese.htm Funny, not in the list was the use as a supplemental heat source when growing pot. What kind of heat do these things put out?

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Quickset, these reptile heaters put out about the same heat as a comparable size bulb but with the additional benefit of no light. The 100W that I use keeps my 3' x 2' x 2' box warm enough during winter.

pastor420 said:

Quickset, these reptile heaters put out about the same heat as a comparable size bulb but with the additional benefit of no light. The 100W that I use keeps my 3' x 2' x 2' box warm enough during winter.

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I was curious about those. Do they throw off infrared light? Or is it just a heating element wrapped in ceramic?

DubB83 said:

I was curious about those. Do they throw off infrared light? Or is it just a heating element wrapped in ceramic?

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DubB83, they are just a heating element encased in ceramic so no light at all. The worst thing about them is the price....lol

Yes the price is up there. On the site I mentioned, same price of approx $38 for any of the bulbs sizes (60w - 150w) which seemed odd to me.

I'm not sure what kind of temps I'll be having in my grow box yet as this is my first grow in basement and real cold weather has yet to come but it may be warmer than I originally thought. All the info provided should result in a solution more than up to the task of keeping my girls cozy.

I just moved plants (2) from veg box to just finished flower box (2d X 3.5w X 6h - corrected dimensions). The flower box is raised on 6" blocks to help keep soil/plants warmer. At the moment average temp is 76F with the single light fixture on, 66F with the light off. Outdoor temps just changed to 39F-40F so I'll be monitoring to see how this affects indoors temps. I'm using T5 HO lighting fixture and single fan as means for air movement.

I was going to keep the 2 plants (greenhouse cheese fem) shown in the pics as mother plants but I can't keep any of the cuttings I'm taking alive. I'll post a separate thread regarding the problem to seek help as I'm doing something wrong. I'm going to take cuttings one more time before switching to 12/12 flower cycle.

I welcome/appreciate any last minute advice/good luck. FluffyToke can light a candle for me.

QS

All Ceramic Heater I have seen Do emit a red glow. Can't be good for flowering. I do the night growing but even during the day up here still gets below freezing at times during the day. My next grow I plan on getting a oil filled space heater. They look like a old fashioned radiator heater. They have thermostat control and emit no light. Ebay have a lot of them relatively cheap.

benzo said:

hey check it out i run my night cycle during the day
so plants can deal with winter day temps nothing below 70F

Click to expand...

Thats the idea. Change your light cycle so the lights are on at night and off during the day.

pastor420 said:

DubB83, they are just a heating element encased in ceramic so no light at all. The worst thing about them is the price....lol

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Dude I just had the same issue with being to cold... about 60degs. I went to my local pet store and bought the ceramic heating element and clamped it on and was able to target 76degs by venting and just arranging the heating element. I could have made it warmer if i wanted. Was very easy and cheap!

Hey client420,

What did you pay for the ceramic heating element? You said it was cheap so just wondering what cheap means here.

Thanks,
QS