Are heaters needed and running 24 hours to maintain temperature?

[rolian]

I have never grown any weed because I have many concerns about cost and controlling the environment 24 hours a day for an average of 3 months. How do you maintain the proper heating with the grow box in a basement? Do you run heaters 24 hours a day? Do you need a specific type of heater with precise heat control? Cost and heating control are my 2 biggest concerns, and I don't see a lot of discussion across the internet about how to do this. Any detailed answers would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Canuck147]

Keep your pots off the floor and usually the temps from my COB lights are enough to keep my tent warmed up around 22 degrees.

[TOKABIGONE]

First rolian, read all the tutorials on the main page here before you do anything. A heater requirement has a lot of variables as does just about everything you do when you grow. A heater might be the least of your worries.
A grow tent, lighting, seeds, strain, medium, nutrients and a host of other things must be considered. Arm yourself with knowledge before you commit yourself to what could be a disaster if you don't have a plan. If cost is a primary concern then don't do it. Plan on an initial investment of $800 to $1000 at a minimum just to get your first couple plants. Also whether you are doing this legally is a concern. Lawyers cost a lot! Good luck!

[rolian]

Thanks. I appreciate the honest answer.

[bboyfromwayback]

I use lights as heat. If you grow inside your house it should never be so cold during lights off to do any harm. I grow in my basement and it makes a easy environment to maintain most of the year. I use a portable ac to keep temps down in the summer when needed

[PLreef]

All depends on your environment. With my lights alone the temp in my tent stays around 76°F.

[YYCannabis]

Hi rolian , welcome to GWE.
before anyone can really tell you if you need a heater, we would need to know more about the area you plan to put your tent in. Things like temp and humidity of the room (aka lung room) is important to help maintain a consistent, controllable environment in the grow tent.
Other considerations to be aware of is where you are going to vent the tent. Venting the heat/humidity/smell from the tent into the basement lung room is discouraged as it can cause mold issues in the room.

As for costs and equipment, it can be expensive to get started, but the payoff is the money you will save when you no longer need to buy cannabis from a dispensary/dealer. My recommendation for heat control is to use an Inkbird temp controller (from Amazon) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01I6LQKRQ/...XRQNV3PCPM6VJR and a small space heater like this one from Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074MXC3PN/...ing=UTF8&psc=1 This heater is a basic on/off unit without any fancy digital controls.

[Rwise]

Welcome to GWE
10 days ago I did not need heat in the grow room, then the temps outside dropped through the flour (down below 0F) and even with heat the temps drop to 60* with lights out.

[TOKABIGONE]

Hey rolian, I want to apologize for sounding rather condescending in my post above. I was a bit distracted when I wrote it and forgot my manners. Welcome! YYCannabis got it right when he said more info is needed usually with any question. I'm a newbie here too but am learning quickly from the kind and helpful folk in this forum. You will too. Good Luck!

[Farmbuck]

It depend where you live. In my case I live north of my american neighbours so I don't have the luxury of growing outside. I have a "grow room" in my basement and I keep the room at 20C all the time and when the lights goes on sometime in the room it reach around 26C and when the lights goes out it remains at 20C.

[dilvish]

a confined space like a grow tent or grow box may get sufficient heat just from the lights and a fan (two things you really do need). Both electrical devices generate some ambient heat and in some cases enough to keep the cannabis at a decent temp. (70F-80F) in those confined spaces.

In the event you do need a heater, you needn't run it 24/7 as long as the room, tent or grow box temps don't fall 5 degrees or more for 8 hours or more. You could purchase a small space heater and a programmable timer for just a few bucks and set the timer to have the heater only come on for set periods. The same timers can be used for lights and fans. i bought a cheap timer for $15 and it has two settings on it so I can turn my fan on and off twice a day (intervals). If I had more pins for it I could do it multiple times through the day.

[Bowhunterwoody]

I'm stuck in the same situation. I want to try a complete indoor grow but my only space is in the unheated basement. It gets as low as 52*f for most of the winter. I figured lights on would be ok but lights out with venting would be a problem. I have a 3x3 tent with a mars hydro ts1000w and a few cheap blurples. Total of about 250w from the wall. I know it's not quite enough light for the tent but I'm only going to do one or two plants at a time. I also have a variable speed vent fan with a carbon filter. Puting it all together now but temperature questions are keeping me up at night.

[Dbdigger]

We recently moved our 2x4 tent from the spare bedroom to the basement. We are luckily though because our basement is mostly finished, and we have baseboard heat. Up until now we generally never had it heat turned on in the basement, and our basement stayed a steady 62 degrees. We knew this would Not work for the tent so we bit the bullet and jacked the heat up and are now heating the entire basement to support the tent. We have another 2x2 tent and started the seedlings in that tent while the first grow was finishing up. So we moved the tent to the basement and spent a few days running the tent as if we had plants in there. Watching temps, humidity, running fans, lights went off at night so we could monitor how the temps and humity dropped at night. This was the only way for us to get in dialed in before the girls came down without totally killing them. Yes, there was some tweaking once, they came down into the tent, but it was much less stressful because we pretty much found our groove by then.
you can do it, it's all figuring it out.

[MrPNW]

I’ve listed my setup to maintain mid 70s, 50% rh in a tent in an uninsulated, unheated metal shop in temps as cold as the 20s. It took me nearly 2 months of scrambling to dial this in but everything works great.

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/490176-plants-went-from-kicking-ass-to-struggling-need-some-advice

[Bowhunterwoody]

Thanks MrPNW. Looking into the oil filled heater and the Inkbird controler. Never gets below 50 so that should do it. Really appreciate it.

[MrPNW]

Yeah the radiator held up fine until it dropped into the 40s.

[billyboy]

I have grown in the basement and now in an unheated porch. Ambient air in the basement was low 50s and the porch can get down to the 20s.

The MH and HPS lights throw plenty of heat to keep the tent (4x4x7) warm during the light period and I have a circulating oil heater for the night. The lights keep the ambient air in the porch in the 60s when lit. I have a blower on or else the tent will way overheat to the upper 90s just from the lights.

Absolutely have a heater in your tent and have plenty of fans to keep the air moving. Do you need it for 24 hrs? Depends on the lights and the heat they throw. For sure have multiple spots in the tent where you are taking temp reading, is my advice. I have three presently. "upper" "lower" and "side" where "side" is mounted at canopy height. I have insulation under the tent bottom to prevent heat being drawn from the pots on the floor.

[MrPNW]

I think you got the same radiator I got. Great little heater.

[Tumbleweed]

Welcome to the forum!
Keep in mind that the heater won't actually run 24x7. My 4x4 tent is in my basement. The basement started out at 67° when I started my first grow, but has dropped to 60° the last few weeks. The heater in my tent only runs for a short time, maybe 2 min every 10 min. to keep the tent at 77° So, it's not really pulling 1,500 watts x 24 hours. Actually it's not even running on the 1,500 watt setting either, it's on the 750 watt setting. So the real power consumption is 750(watts) x 24(hours in a day) x .2 (only running 20% of the time) = 3600 watt hours per day = 3.6kwh per day. Multiply that by $.11 (my cost per kwh) = $.40/day = $12/month to heat a 4x4 tent to 77° in my basement.

I run a "2000 watt equivalent" LED light that actually pulls 300 watts for 18 hours per day. That's another 7.2 kwh per day or $23.76 per month.

The next biggest draw I have would be my exhaust fan that pulls something like 1/3 of an amp. But like the heater it only runs when the Inkbird controller turns it on. Then there's the humidifier that runs on and off the first several weeks of the grow. I don't know how many watts it pulls, but it can't be much. Let's just call it the same as the exhaust fan and say they both run 50% of the time. I also have two circulation fans in the tent. I think they pull something like 17 watts each. So, round that all together and you get something like 72 continuous watts = 1.7kwh/da = $5.61 per month.

All together my grow cost me something in the neighborhood of $42 per month in electricity. Also, I spending about $30/month on distilled water because my water sucks.

Setup cost on the other hand... a quick tally from my Amazon order history says I've spent around $812 for my grow tent, humidifier, light, controllers, pots, coco, fans, nutes, etc. That's not counting the heater, power strip, extension cords, etc. that I already had or bought locally.

Add it all up and that puts the cost of my first grow at just about $1,100 or $110/oz. (if I get 10 oz out of this grow, fingers crossed but not counting on it) But if I don't buy anymore equipment my future grows (assuming 10 oz per grow) should be around $35/oz.

I figured a lot of this before my grow to make sure my entire tent could run on one 15 amp breaker, but I've never added up my other costs. So this was a good chance for me to do that as well. Hope that helps you make your decision. Good luck!

[MrPNW]

I only can for wish for 60s. Last week the coldest night was 27 and high was 32 and a foot of snow.

[Tumbleweed]

I only can for wish for 60s. Last week the coldest night was 27 and high was 32 and a foot of snow.

My basement has been in the 60s. The outside temps have been well below 0° for the last couple weeks, with several days below -30°.