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Equipment to Maintain Tent Temperatures in Cold Conditions

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    Equipment to Maintain Tent Temperatures in Cold Conditions

    With Winter upon us this subject seems to be coming up often with newcomers. I thought I would gather my notes and document how I manage to maintain my temperatures in my cold climate.

    With this setup I can maintain temps in the mid 70Fs with 50% rH in an uninsulated, unheated metal shop in the Pacific NW with outside temperatures as low as the upper 20Fs.

    5’x5’x8’ Gorilla Grow Tent Original • Spider Farmer SF4000

    The tent sits on four 3’x4’ 1/2” thick rubber stall mats. These are found at any farm, tractor supply store. They are VERY heavy, dense rubber mats for animal stalls and insulate from the cold concrete. They also make 4’x6’ 3/4” version but my bad back can’t handle that weight and I was in a hurry. Did I say they were HEAVY.

    I use 7 gallon fabric pots in 16” saucers and up on 2” risers. The pots air prune the roots (no roots wrapping around pot) and it’s hard to overwater because they help dry out the soil faster. I’m doing Nature’s Living Soil so I want all nutrients to stay in the pot. Therefore I remove the risers to water, and once the runoff in the saucers wicks back into the pot (usually the next day), I put back the risers to speed up drying out. Watering ended up being veg 2-3 days and flower 3-4 days.

    This seems to help manage the correct level of humidity, I do not use a humidifier or dehumidifier at this time. Things may change when the hot weather comes. I do have a small portable air conditioner that might be useful then. We used it in our camping trailer but that’s gone.

    Environment: First Grow - Fall and Winter

    I started the grow 01 October and quickly found I wasn’t keeping temps and rH where they needed to be when temps plummeted in the middle of the month from the 50s at night to the 30s. I struggled for nearly 2 months to get a working system and my plants were shocked and stunted. I was afraid I would loose them, they looked terrible. All yellow and twisted leaves. By late November things were being dialed in and the plants were starting to look better.

    Equipment Setup

    My instruments are set to maintain the numbers in this GWE chart.
    I keep it on my phone.

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    AC Infinity T8 fan and carbon filter maintains consistent environment when things get too high. I know that’s not what these fan are designed for but it works awesome and periodically brings in fresh air.
    NOTE: this is the OEM controller that came with my fan in September 2020. I’m upgrading to the new Controller 67 for my next grow and will update this section once I have it.
    • HT = Veg 86F - Flower 81F
    • LT = OFF
    • HH = Veg 61% - Flower 51%
    • LH = OFF

    750w Oil-Filled Radiator with Inkbird Temp Controller Programming the Inkbird 308 VIDEO
    • Maintains the normal temperature of the tent.
    • These are not great for fast heating of a room, they are best for maintaining heat without drying out the air from a fan constantly blowing.
    • Sits in front of the only tent air inlet window I have partially open. This allows the cold air to be heated as it enters the tent.
    • Inkbird HT setting Veg 77-80 and Flower 75-77 depending on outside temps.
    • Optional: 1500w version

    1500w Milkhouse Heater with Inkbird Temp Controller
    • Maintains bottom temp and can quickly prevent lows from happening.
    • Sits to one side of the radiator in the corner, not facing the plants.
    • Inkbird HT setting both Veg and Flower 71-73 depending on outside temps.
    • Heater is set to the 1500w setting.
    You want fans circulating and mixing the air throughout the tent to create an even temperature.

    Floor 8” Oscillating Fan
    • Sits to one side of the radiator in the other corner.
    • Slightly faces up to circulate air from the floor to around the plants and up.
    • Blows air around heaters and plants.

    Ceiling 6” Clip-On Fan
    • Blows heat down into the tent to mix with lower air.
    • Keeps hot air from accumulating up high.

    8 Outlet Surge Protector with Mechanical Timer
    • 4 outlets Always on
    • 4 outlets controlled by timer, only SF4000 Light is hooked to this bank.
    Govee Bluetooth Hygrometer

    Control Wall
    The two Inkbird sensors, the ACI sensor and the Govee hygrometer all hang banded together above the canopy using a standard ratchet rope hanger so I can raise the height. This maintains a consistent reading for all 4 sensors.
    Calibration: All controllers have calibration settings to bring them all to the same temperature number. They should be together when doing this so they are all reading from the same spot in your tent.

    Rh is usually not a problem here in the great north-WET, but on occasion when it drops low I either water the plants or place some water in the saucers to evaporate and that puts it right.

    This is the control wall. You can see the rope hanger holding all the sensors at top right. I originally had them spread out but found better control with them all together sitting at top the canopy.

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    In these images, you can see the radiator in front of the intake window, the milkhouse heater to the left of it and the floor fan to the right of it. The milkhouse heater is not facing the plants so as not to dry them out to much. The floor fan oscillates in a 90 degree path, from along the heater wall, across the room and to the back wall. It is angled slightly up to blow the branches and leaves.
    The upper fan is straight up from the floor fan and angled to push the air down towards the opposite corners and walls.

    Note: after this grow I plan on moving the ACI fan setup to along the opposite wall of the heaters and straight up above the water wand. This was the first piece of equipment I installed upon setting up the tent and I’ve found I would like to expose more of the ceiling poles for the light hangers.

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    Outside the tent to the right is a 4’ table with a 20 gallon food-grade water barrel with brass spigot, 10’ garden hose and water wand. The hose enters the tent at the bottom through one of the sock openings. It’s gravity fed. Both the spigot and water wand have turn-off valves to prevent accidental flooding. I keep it hung using the cable hanging from an upper sock opening. The ACE brand wand is the best I’ve ever owned. The shower setting with the mild flow of water gets everything evenly wet without washing the soil around. Note: the only negative points in its review were some people cracking the threads in the handle from connecting and disconnecting the hose. I added a brass quick disconnect from ACE to prevent this from happening. Be sure to use plumbers teflon tape on all threads.

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    Images from my weather app and the Govee hygrometer.

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    Here they are today, week 7 into flower.

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    Attached Files
    Last edited by MrPNW; 03-13-2021, 06:57 PM.

    Equipment
    5x5x8 Gorilla Grow TentSpider Farmer SF4000AC Infinity 8” TS Fan/Carbon Filter
    ———————————————————————————————————-
    1st Grow
    Started 01 Oct 2020 • Flipped 12/12, 01 Jan 2021 • Harvested 08 Mar 2021
    Black Gold organic potting soilNature’s Living SoilCompost Tea using NLS
    Pennywise (Harlequin/Jack the Ripper) 1:1 ratio, Indica dominant, medium size plant

    #2
    MrPNW well written I have had the same problem ,I texted Infinity to say my low auto mode wasn't working they told me to put it in the on position so I tried it there way then walked in and the ac infinity was running full speed at 80 degrees , I was able to get the govee working and the I used my exhaust fan to balance it all finally got it dialed in and now I have to flip them lol Yesterday I purchased a 1500 w oil heater and turned it all the way up ,I'm using a vivosun thermostat to turn it on and off so we will see a little later
    new grow room built summer of 2017 ,argo max tent for veging ,big kahuna reflector, 1000hps with added leds for the full spectrum . 15th indoor grow ,5 years outside gorilla grows(stealth is the key),veg under t5s growing autos under 300w leds
    current grow https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...-new-grow-room

    https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...-auto-vs-photo


    https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...-week-4-update

    Comment


    • MrPNW
      MrPNW commented
      Editing a comment
      Yeah, when I first setup my ACI controller I set the HT to the 1 degree above what is in the GWE chart high number and the LT to 1 degree below the charts low number. The low temp setting was a BIG mistake. It worked fine until one evening the temp hit that low setting and the fan came on full bore, bring the temp down even lower until it was in the low 50s until I came in the next day! My plants suffered terribly. So I reset it again thinking I did something wrong. A couple days later, again. I thought my plants would die. I contact the company and after explaining the situation he said I need to turn the LT to OFF.
      Hard lesson learned. I lost a month of good growth due to that and figuring out I needed that milkhouse heater to prevent extremely low temp from happening when the radiator couldn’t keep up.
      Last edited by MrPNW; 02-18-2021, 04:12 PM.

    #3
    The new AC infinity 67 Controller was just released. It has some significant improvements over the last one(wish I hadn’t bought that one 3months ago), but now I have the new one.
    It will keep your environment locked in regardless of a wide range of temps outside. Have a look. For a beginner like me it’s really helped a lot.
    Just make sure it’s compatible with your existing fan if you have

    awsome looking plants by the way 👍👍

    Comment


    • MrPNW
      MrPNW commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely be looking into it.

    • oldjarhead100
      oldjarhead100 commented
      Editing a comment
      Me to ,I dont have my ac connected to anything it just blows the air in the room, I think I could really use it in the 12/12 dark

    #4
    New AC Infinity Crontroller 67 Information

    I just pre-ordered on Amazon

    Click image for larger version

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ID:	491594
    Last edited by MrPNW; 02-18-2021, 04:05 PM.

    Equipment
    5x5x8 Gorilla Grow TentSpider Farmer SF4000AC Infinity 8” TS Fan/Carbon Filter
    ———————————————————————————————————-
    1st Grow
    Started 01 Oct 2020 • Flipped 12/12, 01 Jan 2021 • Harvested 08 Mar 2021
    Black Gold organic potting soilNature’s Living SoilCompost Tea using NLS
    Pennywise (Harlequin/Jack the Ripper) 1:1 ratio, Indica dominant, medium size plant

    Comment


    • oldjarhead100
      oldjarhead100 commented
      Editing a comment
      that looks like the one I have hmmm

    • MrPNW
      MrPNW commented
      Editing a comment
      In the info it says you can immediately tell if its an OEM or aftermarket version by the clock. OEM doesn’t have that. That’s rather handy since I’m always pulling my phone out to check.

    • MrPNW
      MrPNW commented
      Editing a comment
      Just received my new controller, wasn’t expecting it until well into March so surprise. I don’t want to screw up anything now so close to harvest so I will wait to dial it in when I move the ACI system around before starting the next grow. That will give me time to dial everything in for a few days prior to having any plants in there.

    #5
    They look very similar as the old controller, remember to make sure your existing fan is compatible.
    Im in Canada and was able to order on Amazon.ca , took about a week.
    I tried first on Amazon.com cause that’s where it was available first but it wasn’t shipping so I canceled it when I saw it on the .CA and it worked out.
    lots of new features

    Comment


    • MrPNW
      MrPNW commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks, when I ordered on amazon it said shipping a few weeks out but yesterday got a message saying early next week.
      I used the chat on their site to confirm compatibility for my September 2020 purchase.

    #6
    It took me a couple weeks to realize you could use multiple features at once(guess I should have looked for a video demo, dumb dumb), you don’t have to pick between say a schedule, and a high temp set point.
    For example, I have it set to turn on at a high temp setting like the old one did (the new one can also modulate speeds) in Auto mode, when lights on. If it’s very cold it may even stop for 2-5 mins as the light warms the tent.
    Additionally I use the schedule and a cycle feature to have the fan cycle the tent air 10mins every hour when light is of off, regardless of temp.
    It very configurable now, really good improvements.

    Comment

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