My grow cabinet is out in my garage. Its roughly the same size as your standard bedroom closet, so that should give everyone an idea of what we're working with here.

My problem is that I cant get the area above 70f on a regular basis, and the temps are running down around 50-55 when it gets really cold during the day. My 400w HPS is on 12/12 at the moment, with the lights on at night to hopefully counteract the colder air at night.

I'm not really happy with the idea of putting a small space heater in there for a couple of reasons. First, I dont like the idea of another 1500watt heater sucking juice. They're expensive. Second, I'm afraid of something going wrong. I've heard way too many horror stories about those damn things catching fire.

Solution: I'm wondering if anyone has thought of using a towel warmer of some sorts, or anything else to warm their rooms? I was also looking at one of these radiant heat panels, but they're kinda pricey...

Thoughts?

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You're Fat. Don's sugar coat it or you'll eat that too!

just get a small space heater. they're just about as expensive, if not less, than that towel warmer

Are you venting air? If so turn it down or maybe even off most of the time. 400W should keep a closet fairly warm if you are not venting too much unless you are in Antartica. You could also add some insulation if you are losing that much heat, I definately would not be adding a heater.

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space heaters use 1500w.....

get a 1k hps, no more temp probs

lol, and 50s' isn't too bad, it'll cause your purple phenos to go purple (if you have any)

Yeah, I would prefer to not have to upgrade the lighting at this point! haha

I do have full ventilation, which has not been on for about two weeks now. Thankfully the full on stank has not set in yet. I've got some serious odor control in place in case the carbon filter isnt available due to the heating issues.

I'm thinking of a small radiant panel heater. They're typically used in an office setting. 100w power usage, and possibly just enough heat to keep things warm.

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You're Fat. Don's sugar coat it or you'll eat that too!

insulation for sure. my 1k hps hopefully will be doing the heating this winter.

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I'm not sure but you might be able to get a co2 generator. It burns propane and gives you co2. It might just help with the heat problems and give you co2. Win win.

Insulate the cabinet (slows the heat flow from the cabinet into the garage). Get a space heater (doesn't matter what the wattage is) and a thermostat. If you get a good thermostat, the heater will hardly ever be on (since it only has to heat up a very small space) and it will not consume too much energy. I do not recommend propane Co2 generators, they tend to catch things on fire.

You can rap it in insulation and put an incandescent light bulb underneath or around it to keep it warm and sustain the heat already built up.
While living in buffalo, NY briefly I had trouble with my old sentra starting and my grandfather told me to cover the engine with a blanket and run a light bulb (incandescent for heat) underneath the car and it started with no problem after that. You can use similar principles, lights that give off some heat. (I'm assuming your cab is air/light tight) Lights would also be much safer and cheaper. If you can... lift your cab onto cinder blocks and then place a hundred watt incandescent underneath on a auto light string and then put some fire retardent insulation around the bottom to keep the heat in and moving up.