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A few practical things I've learned about indoor growing - My 2nd attempt.

Something else you can do for climate control, is to add some thermal mass. Basically something that tends to hold heat longer than air, such as water or stone. A lot of greenhouse gardeners use the strategy, and it does work best in a greenhouse where the water can heat during the day, from the power of the sun, but it would also help out in your shed.
The easiest way is with something along the lines of 55 gallon drums, but anything will work, as long as it's sealed up so that it doesn't raise your humidity.
Thermal mass helps to keep your day time temps lower, as well, by storing cool from the night, it moderates temperature swings.
The worlds oceans do the same thing, as well as the ground. Some people even use the thermal mass of the ground with Geothermal Energy, you can find quite a few youtubes on that one to!
 
I should just take the floor out of my shed. I'd gain another foot of height and benefit from the cooler ground. Would need to pack bales oh hay or something around during the lights out period. Already have screening in place to keep out critters. Need to consider the structural implications but there is some merit to the idea. No room whatsoever for another plant, let alone a big rock or a 55 gallon drum.
 
Sounds like it might not be a good choice for your grow then. I definitely would leave the floor of your shed in, it gives the structure a lot of rigidity.
 
The bails of hay, or some type of skirting around the outside, would keep it warmer in winter. Might be good to have it open during the summer, though, so the breeze can get under and cool it off. They also make eaves vents, that can dump a lot of heat out the top, though you would want to cover it if you need to run a carbon scrubber, or hold heat in, but that shouldn't be to hard.
 
Here is a photo of my shed very early in the grow. You can see that the rafters are open for ventilation and that the floor is a spaced plank porch type floor - open to the ground. This was also done for ventilation. All this built in ventilation worked well through the summer (vegetative stage) but became a problem when I switched to flowering because there was too much light coming in through all my "designed ventilation". The ceiling is now insulated with rafter tails closed and the floor is covered to obscure all the cracks. Light was coming in under the building. There is also a window in the room (between those 2 vertical strips of duct tape) that's a sliding panel that covers the window. The window has been open most of the summer - at least during the lights on period.

Next season - if I venture another crop - I will incorporate a ventilation system (as I wrote about above). It has been quite a learning curve managing temperatures through this grow. I now have added another 600 watt LED to the 2 you see in the photo. Every change has a consequence.

One thing for certain - only 4 or fewer plants next time. 5 is completely overcrowded.

I'll post some more current photos this weekend.

Thanks for all the advice and comments everyone.

Crow



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Hi mate, just wanted to add on to this as I too have been having issues now with temps especially at night however now it’s cooler with much dryer air I am finding that it’s a def benefit to having the lights on at night as long as they come on at a time that you can be awake for, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go in and do any work on hem during my day light hours while they were in darkness, I like you will be much more prepared when it comes to creating the grow environment for the next grow and will be investing in much more environmental controls such as speed controllers and a temperature and humidity automation so the equipment will be able to turned off and on when temps and humidity reaches certain level, via a sensor system.
 
Every grow is a learning process (especially as I am on ONLY my 2nd grow). It is so much easier keeping the room dark during the dark than in the day but with the automated features that could be less of an issue. Figuring it out though - more technology! Good luck to us all. :)
 
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