DIY wardrobe heater

[gizmo001]

Hi,
I was wondering what you peeps out there would think of my idea for heating a wardrobe grow room setup. Seeing as i live in the UK, the temperature is a bit lower than i would like it to be. Not only that, but after buying lights, ferts etc, my funds are a little low, so I have come up with what may be a low wattage solution to warming the grow room.
I am thinking of placing a tropical aquarium heater (which I have a spare of) into some large diameter (about 3 or 4 inches diameter) upvc tubing filled with water and then sealing the unit at both ends. I want to seal both ends to keep the humidity down. Obviously the heater would have to be placed in the tube so that it doesn't touch the sides of the tubing. Now the heater has a thermostat which I can set and so the whole unit should be capable of warming the grow room without blowing the heater (which has to be submerged). The heater is only 150W, so I don't think there will be any problem with the tubing as long as I leave a little room for expnasion of the water.
Do you guys think this could work, or will I be wasting my time. Myself, i think it will, but I am sure that there are some of you out there who have experimented before and will have more of an idea about this than me. Any thoughts will be very welcome.
Cheers
Ian

[gizmo001]

Still been thinking about this and have decided to do a trial run tonight using a large vase, with the heater/thermostat in the water with the top of the vase completely sealed. Also, if I do try this, i will add some antifreeze to prevent mold and algae from growing in the water. i will let you all know how it goes.

[withakay]

Sounds like a great plan mate, look forward to hearing how it goes.
Good luck

[whitewidman]

I use aquarium heaters in the nutes of my hydro setup and these once warmed up about 22C work as 2x15gal rads.

[gizmo001]

Well, I have got the heater running in the vase at the moment in a cold room to check that there are no problems. I know it won't heat the room up lol as it is too big, but it will show if the idea works to a certain extent. then once my lights come back on tomorrow, I will put it in my grow room and see how it goes.

[fat freddy]

£19.99 buys you a 180w suntube heater from screwfix!

[gizmo001]

I know, but as I said, funds are very low at the moment and hopefully this will see me through until I can get a more permanent solution sorted.

[keshman]

What I would do whilst your skint is...don't worry!

The plants seem to do well enough for little Afghan farmers living in the middle of stupidly hot daytime temps and ridiculously low night time temps. They'll maybe not grow as well as they possibly could, but they'll grow all the same!

[bonsaiman]

Sounds like an interesting idea to me and reckon it could work. I keep my fishtank at 24C and the glass is always warmer than the outside air. A couple of things I'd say is make the upvc as thin as you think you can get away with, so that more heat can get through, and if it's an old heater that you've stored away for a while I'd put it through an RCD. My mate got an old heater out once and within a couple of days the thermostat broke and his fish boiled - he lost 5 lovely Discus fish that he'd had for years - gutted (excuse the pun). Good luck with it mate, you could do as Keshman says, but experimentation is always more fun. Bm

[gizmo001]

As you say, the experimentation is the fun bit lol. The heater is a new one which I somehow ended up with. I think it came with my fish tank but I wanted a higher wattage one for the tank. Anyway, I am now doing a test with a large plastic sweet jar and if that works, i will be installing it tomorrow. As you said Bonsaiman, the wall needs to be fairly thin which is why I am using the sweet jar as it should also be strong enough to withstand the heat and the water.