Adding Heat

I have 9 seedlings growing in a box that is in an un-insulated room. The temperature in the box is around 60 degrees F with a new circulation fan I added (large PC fan), and a little bit higher without the fan running. The temperature in the box is too low, I know, and I want to increase it, because my 2.5 week old seedlings are growing really slowly. I currently have two 18 watt floro's, I'm thinking about getting higher wattage ones, will this increase the heat? And also, does having the temperature in the low 60's really slow growth down a lot? If I move up to say like 40 watt floro's will this help significantly? I don't want to go too high in watts, because A). I don't want to draw attention to the electricity bill, and B). I don't want to burn my plants. Thanks for any help.

you can place a heating pad(water proff it) under them. use a layer of kitty litter in between heating pad and container to prevent over heating.

fdd2blk said:

you can place a heating pad(water proff it) under them. use a layer of kitty litter in between heating pad and container to prevent over heating.

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good idea but will that heat the whole grow room (i know not a big room like a grow box) or just help keeping the pot and soil warm.

how big is the box/room? an incadescent bulb put off in a corner puts out a lot of heat. block the direct light from plants so they don't burn. that's just a stony thought off the top of my head that i just made up. it might work though?

well i always have a little mini heater wth a thermostat in my growing room and that heats up my greenhouse part really well. And i usually keep it going throughout the cold rainy days and then turn it down to let them cool during lights off period.

yea, i have a reptile heater ( for a reptile tank).
it works great, i have one of my rooted clones sitting ontop of the heater ( in its container). and it brings the root temp to around 70-78.

i started to use a little convection heater with some 500W hucked to thermo-control... but this set-up is no week old, so i can't tell if it any good really:-I

do you have the option of buying a warming mat? I use one for my cloans. Keeps em 74 to 80 degrees nice and warm soil. If they are seedlings, they will react nicely to this. I would stay away from a heating pad. It does not5 regulate heat well and can catch fire.