I noticed most farmers that grow indoors are venting outside ,or another room, or into a attic. If I can I would like to keep it just being vented into the garage. I live in the desert and am just doing a small grow for medical reasons. I am not growing yet but trying to manage heat issues. Thanks to adding a variable speed controller I so far have no problems keeping the growing conditions at 75 degrees. Today the temps in the garage are 62 degrees. Temp inside tent is 68 degrees and I just turned on the heater and set it at 72 degrees and lowered my speed controller to the lowest setting. Because of living in the desert and am only doing a small grow I have no need to grow in the summer. If I can dial everything in I should be able to start growing very soon and finish my first grow before summer heat hits. So my question is: can I just vent into my garage?
So far I haven’t dialed in any RH temps but they are usually in the 20’s and 30’s without setting up the humidifier. Originally my temps were quite high but I opened up another vent and moved several items that were in the way of getting air into the tent. Thanks to this site for the info on opening another vent. And of course a big Thank YOU to you and to this forum and it’s great members!
RH and temps inside your tent will be different from the ambient temp and RH of your garage. Did you set the tent up in there and run your lights and fans?
Yes the tent is already setup in my garage. I am monitoring my garage temps also. This morning they were at 62 degrees. Same as inside the tent. RH was at 35 outside in garage. Turned on everything in the tent except for the heater and checked in a hour and the temps were at 70 degrees in the tent. Variable controller was set to high so I dropped it down to a low setting and the temps went up to 72 73 degrees. Have two gauges monitoring the lights at 20 inches away. Just recently dialed the temps in at 75 degrees with my heater
I have also been monitoring temps with 3 gauges. One for the top of the tent which hits always it seems at 68 degrees. Also put on the top of light canopy and it’s also at 68 degrees. Seems my 435 CFM is doing it’s job or?.
MattyBear do you think these temps are normal at the top and above the light. Novice here but I expected the temps to be higher I guess but I am definitely a novice when it comes to this. LOL
As @MattyBear says, many things affect your tent temperatures. The biggest influence is your lighting. With LED’s, the heat produced is much less than an equivalent output HID light would produce.
This is very smart to dial all of this in before starting your grow. There will be adjustments to be made but you are way ahead of the game having a stable environment and a handle on how to change it when needed.
Starting out as a newbie am definitely trying to stay ahead of my grow… I was nervous about venting into the garage so I can sleep a little easier now. Or not cause I have severe insomnia issues. Lol
Thank you
Do you have a pH meter and an EC meter. Those will be crucial when you start your grow. The pH things that you dip and compare to charts and the soil pH probes at your local nursery will not get the job done. You really do need an electronic pH meter to test and adjust your water and nutrient solutions.
Neglect pH at your plants peril!
I don’t have a link handy but I bet @MattyBear does.
Well… that would all depend on budget
You can get by with a cheaper ppm/ec/tds meter, but you’ll want a reliable ph meter. I use and highly recommend the Apera ph20 meter. Easy to use and stays calibrated for a long time if stored properly
Thanks MattyBear
I have the cheap ones. I originally I had bought a $100 ph tester but returned it. 60% off so I should have probably kept it. Heard from several it doesn’t matter but I am not so inclined anymore.
You mean I still have to keep dialing everything in once I get plants in the tent? No one said this was going to be easy did they? Lol. Thanks to you guys I did just order a humidity controller. So I get to let that dial in at least my humidity levels.
You appear to have your environment dialed in. As a newbie, I had the same issues, but in the mountains with dramatic daily shifts in temperature. I ran small heat producing lights to supplement the drops and increased the venting speed both on the light and in the tent when the heat was building up. My 600w MH is cool to the touch with the 440 cfm fan blowing through there. In a 3x3x5 tent, I have to be careful not to scorch the plants.
Check out the Grow Bible for guidance on the range of both temps, humidity, and pH. Keep reading!
Was wondering why the lights were so cool even to the touch. Wasn’t sure how far I would be placing my lights. The hand to light test was out it seemed. Makes sense now. So i used a 20" distance but still not sure. I see you have a 600w I have a 400w for veg
The Grow Bible I can’t seem to get downloaded. Read others have problem also. No big deal though I am pretty overloaded with grow books already.
