A safe and effective CHEAP tent heater.

This post is aimed at newer growers working on a budget. After some testing on my ACI heat box ( which is defective ) i found out that a simple ceramic heater gives me more bang for the buck. for energy output and is high enough to use as a tent heater.

This is a $30 ceramic forced air heater. Heater must have a fan. Tent must be well sealed with a duct fan to move air.
24x24 box.
Duct with insect screen 4 inch pointing at heater from 4 inches away running into tent floor. Place a small strip of paper hanging down from the top of the duct to show if air comes out. You can not check airflow with tent open the air will come in the open door not the 4 inch duct

Place heater on floor in front of duct opening. Place box with one side open against tent wall.Try to get heater in middle of box. Place temp sensor in duct from in the tent a few inches from the opening. Start heater and let run. Turn on duct fan. This will allow airflow from outside the tent going through the duct to heat up. I use the temp control on the heater to balance it at 100 degrees.
For those of you who think this is a fire hazzard check the safety info. All ceramic heaters have tip over and over temp lockouts. They are not capable of temps over 125 degrees. The combustion temp of cardboard is over 40 degrees. This thing can not catch fire unless it is defective. Just like a certain light manufacturer defects can happen but my auxillary heater has been in use for 3 weeks and I have lots of data on how stable this is and it works

I’ve used desktop heaters attached to an inkbird controller for years. It works pretty well, once you have it dialed in.

Not all of these have tip over protection. I have one heater that does (here) and one that does not (here) so check before you buy. I haven’t had any fire issues, but I have had plants that were placed too close to the heater get fried.

These type of heaters are programmed to be “on” or “off”, so you can’t control temperature with them without a controller. If you already have a controller, these type of heaters are an easy way to add heat for ~$30. If you don’t have a controller, once you add in the cost of the controller ($35-50 for an inkbird, depending on whether you want wifi or not, so $65-$80 for the controller and heater), you’re getting pretty close to the cost of a pre-made solution.

I personally prefer hear from the oil radiators and you can get a decent one for around $50.

MannyPacs said:

I personally prefer hear from the oil radiators and you can get a decent one for around $50.

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I'll second that! Hydronic heating is far superior as it doesn't just heat the air, but also everything in the room. ie... couch, walls, plants, soil, ect...

The one I have has a Hi-Lo switch and a thermostat setting that works very well. I do keep a growee sensor in the exit tube.
I did not see a space heater of the ceramic variety without tip over protection available but honestly only looked at the $40 range...