Insulating grow tent with Thermawrap/others

[Keeno]

Right,

How big is the garage? I ask as you are venting warm air into the indoor area. You would be much better off just insulating the whole thing. Yes it adds up but it's a job worth doing. This will keep the ambient temps up. Or you'll just suck cold air into the tent, and the air you ate paying to heat up will cool twice twice as fast as the ambient garage temps are low. It's a pain in the arse I know as I was inna garage for ages. I wish I'd just insulated the whole thing.

[wutang]

Its a single garage mate. Valid point. I just don't have th3 time at the moment to pick up that project, but in this case I'd rather spend the money properly, so I may just throw some blankets on top or buy the toolstation jobby rather than the premium quilt stuff for now. I've grown throughout winter in soil before and it wasn't too bad..yes it will cost more..but still worth it. I'll have to put a nutrient heater in the autopot reservoir no doubt as temps get lower. Fingers crossed I can still do well in th3 next grow out . Thanks fir your input bro

[Benjic93]

I built an insulation box around my tent with thick Polystyrene boards. Created a door for easy access and have my in take on a timer so it brings air in just not 24hrs a day so the temp doesn't drop too much. My outake is powerful enough to being some air through the fan when off. Mines also in a garage per se. Radiator and an inkbird. I also have about 10cm space all around the box with my outtake ducting circulating the warm air around the tent. Keeps the tent a little more cosy. Not ideal but it works for the cold snaps through winter. Saves the radiator being on 24hrs a day.

[BriGuyCNY]

I have a 3x3 tent and my first year growing I put underneath the tent, a thick foam board insulation. My floors are very cold and with a thermometer gun I checked the floor before and after and I definitely made a difference in the floor temps. As for the walls they seemed pointless to insulate with the low quality insulation I bought. Maybe with the higher end insulation, but it wasn't cost effective for me. I bought the cheapest white foam board that looked like styrofoam.

[wutang]

I built an insulation box around my tent with thick Polystyrene boards. Created a door for easy access and have my in take on a timer so it brings air in just not 24hrs a day so the temp doesn't drop too much. My outake is powerful enough to being some air through the fan when off. Mines also in a garage per se. Radiator and an inkbird. I also have about 10cm space all around the box with my outtake ducting circulating the warm air around the tent. Keeps the tent a little more cosy. Not ideal but it works for the cold snaps through winter. Saves the radiator being on 24hrs a day.

See I've always thought that's a bad thing..re circulating the extracted air..but come to think of it.. it will be mixed with some fr3sh air outside the tent anyway so shouldn't be too much of a bother. I was thinking of dropping my outtake near my passive intake so in essence it will be sucking in some warm air.

[Greenthirteen]

I’m in an insulated room but… I grabbed a load of sleeping bags from the loft and they work amazing!

[BriGuyCNY]

thats a great idea. I bet sleeping bags work better than insulation

[Hmr81]

when i was venting my tent into the shed, kinda of recirculating i guess, i struggled with high RH. In the end i had to vent to outside(still do) to fix the issue. the problem is you are always drawing in cold air from the shed/tent so you can insulate all you want but if the ambient is cold you are still gonna need a lot of heat. doing the full garage would be cool but i reckon thats tricky to do properly and heat but not impossible.

[IMO]

As Keeno said your probably better insulating the space, as the moisture will find the coldest spot and condense there, I experienced this in a bedroom, heater was inside the tent but the room wasn’t heated. Now I have a heater in the room to just take the chill of it and this stops the condensation forming on the tent walls, my extractor goes out through the the roof into the loft.

[Marcus]

When I was in the garage, I put a couple of sheets of 50mm celotex over the door, that helped loads.

I had old jiujitsu mats from the gym on the floor to keep the tent off the cold concrete, also the years of sweat soaked into them helped the plants smell more funky.

Ditch the leds in winter, run CMH or HPS and a dehumidifier in the garage too. They do kick out some heat and only really fire up at lights off when temps dipped.

I would be tempted (if I was still in the garage and I may be again soon) to build a timber framed room, plasterboard and insulate that to grow in. Just have vents top and bottom (like cavity walls) and basically scrub the air in there. You could change the air a few times a day on a timer with a fan, but just going in to check on them will exchange the stale air and the vents should help slowly bring fresh in too.


It's a bugger this time of year with the cold.