How to heat a 5x9 Grow Tent (In a non insulrated shed)??

Heyall, I just got a 5x9 Grow tent, running a 12 site bubblebucket system and two 1k watt raptors. The tent is going in an unattached garage but it might as well be a shed as there's virtually no insulation. I live in southern oregon where its usually 20-30 at night and 35-50 during the day.

Could I get away with setting the lights to run at night and through a few heaters in there during the day? If so which ones would you recommend. In the long run i need to insulate the place but looking for a quick fix, since I have 12 chocolopes ready to veg!

You just have to experiment running your setup and monitoring temps. As for a heater, the 1500w oil filled heaters are the most energy efficient. Keep in mind, without insulation heating will become costly. It could be anywhere from $1.50 - $3.00 per day to keep it warm. Fibreglass insulation is dirt cheap and extremely easy to put up.

Are you thinking of heating the entire garage or just the grow tent?
Any way to section off part of the garage? That would reduce cost, especially if insulation is added to the new room. That would be my choice for efficiency and stealth.

Years ago, before I put a woodstove in my basement, I grew in a homemade wood cabinet that was 8' long x 6' high x 4' deep and heated it with a two element electric hotplate. My basement would be just above freezing and sometimes below in corners, but the cabinet was good to go. Metal pots filled with sand and water sat on top of the elements to prevent combustion contact with the heating element and as a means of adding humidty and also served as a heatsink. I could germ seeds by placing a plate on the top of a pot too

You kind of answered your question with your initial post. No insulation in there = insulate. Your choice is to insulate a small area, or pay through the nose for heating an uninsulated area. Even if you just used styrofoam-type insulation to build a box around the tent (frame it with 2x2's, velcro one "wall" as the entrance so you can open/close it for maintenance), it would be cheap, easy and save you a ton of $$ in heating. Same thinking along the lines of Beagler's suggestions...

get some heavy MIL plastic and tent off and seal an area around your tent so your tent is in a plastic room. it will act as a secondary air barrier. make some passive ventilation top and bottom. or you could buy some of sheets of insulation board and a couple tubes of construction adhesive and glue a temporary box together around the tent. you could just buy some rolls of insulation batting and just drape them over the tent for a temporary situation, if you do this i would do something to keep stray insulation from getting into the tent

CokeyoDrips said:

You just have to experiment running your setup and monitoring temps. As for a heater, the 1500w oil filled heaters are the most energy efficient. Keep in mind, without insulation heating will become costly. It could be anywhere from $1.50 - $3.00 per day to keep it warm. Fibreglass insulation is dirt cheap and extremely easy to put up.

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Yep, the oil-filled are awesome...and work even better with a separate fan to circulate.

To OP: If you're going this route get the 3 setting that adjusts wattage...$75 at Home Depot etc.

Sunbiz1 said:

Yep, the oil-filled are awesome...and work even better with a separate fan to circulate.

To OP: If you're going this route get the 3 setting that adjusts wattage...$75 at Home Depot etc.

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Agreed, they are relatively cheap (relative key word). A few years ago I was on my own in a 2000 sq/ft house for the winter that had an oil furnace but since I was on my own and didn't want to heat a lot I tried going electric and installed 4 of these oil filled heaters to supplement. It wasn't cheap but heated a whole house for 2 months for about $500/month, oil cost me about $300/month for the same time period, again relative, should have stuck with oil If you insulate/wrap the tent it and use these heaters you'd reduce the cost significantly. Only thing is I'd be concerned about these INSIDE the tent as they do get hot (like hot to the touch), bit of a fire hazard inside the tent. Trying to push the air into the tent (if you put them outside) with these heaters would be difficult as the heat radiates up and around them, there's no specific "hole" to grab the hot air coming off them...

WeedFreak78 said:

get some heavy MIL plastic and tent off and seal an area around your tent so your tent is in a plastic room. it will act as a secondary air barrier. make some passive ventilation top and bottom. or you could buy some of sheets of insulation board and a couple tubes of construction adhesive and glue a temporary box together around the tent. you could just buy some rolls of insulation batting and just drape them over the tent for a temporary situation, if you do this i would do something to keep stray insulation from getting into the tent

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Awesome ideas, thank you. I'm going to go with that and put up insulation around that area of the room we close off. Gah now I gotta figure out how to cut wholes into my walls for ventilation. Look forward to sharing the grow journal with you guys!

PetFlora said:

HD/Lowes has 4 x8 sheets of foil-back Styrofoam insulation of various R ratings. Cut to fit

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Ha, we shop at the same places Just bought a bunch of it for the walls in my new room, awesome stuff, easy to work with, good light reflection, insulation, cheap, nothing negative I can see with this stuff. I'm thinking of building a little seeding station with it in a corner of the new room. Got mine at HD... http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchView?catalogId=10051&storeId=10051&langId=-15&N=0&Ntt=Durafoam&Nty=1&D=Durafoam&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&s=true

move to Australia...im struggling with 45 degree Celsius (= 113 degree Fahrenheit) and 86% humidity atm

WazzaX said:

move to Australia...im struggling with 45 degree Celsius (= 113 degree Fahrenheit) and 86% humidity atm

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lol -1F and 30% humidity here this morning...ill trade ya, i hate the cold.

Cheapest and fastest way is to insulate the garage. You can get away with no insulation bats but Id get them. You could just buy the 1 inch thick foam board comes in 4x8 sheets and tail the sheets up to walls and ceiling. running a heater is gonna cost at 1500 watts usage then the need to make sure you are fire prepared ie extinguishers and ready water supply. Your also gonna have to deal with an extreme amount of condensation in the tent so make sure you have extra exhaust and intake figured in with a dehumidifier and extra fans moving the air. I know my tents during the winter rain inside when its like 20 below outside and then air around tent is 65 and in the tent it was 80.

run co2 in tent with no fresh air exchange, put up a frame around the tent and attach those insulating sheets around the frame to hold all the heat in from your lights, dehumdifier in the tent will also add heat to the room. exhaust lights either into uninsulated space around tent in garage, or cut hole in garage and vent outside, would depend on your in yourrom temps what you decided to do with your exhaust. if it gets too hot, rig up another fan to come online when temps inside room exceed xyz and then you could pull cold fresh air into your grow space and col it quickly.

or do the frame and sheets around the tent and pull cold air in as needed. 2000 watts in a small space will get hot, so even in winter air exchange happens often. i just prefer sealed rooms.

Yeah you have to vent the air in a co2 grow. Please don not take the advise to not vent when using co2 as thats not a good thing as those familar with co2 know you still have to vent and exchange the air with co2 a few times a day. I like 4 times a day myself lights on then constant 2 hours after lights out.

I'm going to try running veg room at day and flowering tent at night and use the heat each light puts off to exhaust into the other room. I have a big ass hydroponic cabinet (4 1/2 feet wide, 7 tall, 3 deep) that I was planning to use for vegging. I'll just run that during the day and exhaust the heat into the grow tent (or entire garage depending on how temperature tests goes) and then vent the tent into the open garage while it runs at night.

If this isn't enough I'll start insulating.