MindSoup Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Hello Chums I was asking about compact heaters the other day, trying to find something to wedge into my veg cab. I can't remember who it was, but someone mentioned ceramic vivarium heaters, absolutely perfect! This tiny little thing is supposedly 100 watts and it fits in the palm of your hand, that cage is about the size of a half pint cup. The sides don't put out a lot of heat either, it mostly comes out of the bottom, so plants can get quite close without getting cooked. I can hold the cage in my hand when it's turned on no worries at all. Oh and in case you're wandering it doesn't emit any light. They're cheap as well, think this one was about 20 quid. Sat next to a fan it could easily heat a far bigger space than this it's hardly even warming up before reaching temperature. Larger sized bulbs are also available. So whoever it was, thank you, you've made my mother plant's very happy. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 It was @murphyblue and @ratdog . Cheers old chums, these little gizmo's are a revelation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphyblue Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I remembered looking at them when looking for a replacement for the oil rad. Perfect for a small space and the one I saw had the controller and everything with it and pretty cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 Yeah nice one dude, definitely a winner. I think I payed 40 quid in total for the controller and heater etc, but yeah you can definitely can get them cheaper if your not in a hurry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slippy One Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 100w is quite a lot. My 2” bar heater is only 35w 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 (edited) I haven't actually measured how much it draws, but like I say in that little cab it's hardly trying, I feel like with good placement it might be able to heat a 2x2 on its own. I wouldn't be surprised if it's pulling a full 100 watts at all. Edited January 22 by MindSoup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldo Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Does it put out any light or glow orange/red? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratdog Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 2 hours ago, Slippy One said: 100w is quite a lot. My 2” bar heater is only 35w not here it isn't mate, i have a 300w ceramic fan duct heater (usually running at 180), it's smaller than a rubiks cube and it perfect for small spaces, it's not so good in a 1.2 tent in winter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphyblue Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I only just noticed where's the power lead for it can't see it in the pic. ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphyblue Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Got me stupid head on and can't remember how to edit. I been thinking about this all day like innit. They would be good for a much larger grow initial outlay would be more expensive depending how many u used compared to a good oilrad. But running costs would work out a lot cheaper. Plus with them being so small u could place them in and amongst the plants getting the heat where it's needed. I am all about efficiency u got to be the price on leccy these days. I have found this winter grow that getting the enviroment right is more than half the battle and less is defo more if its in the right places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slippy One Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 4 hours ago, Slippy One said: 100w is quite a lot. My 2” bar heater is only 35w 2' I mean!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 (edited) 2 hours ago, Eldo said: Does it put out any light or glow orange/red? No 1 hour ago, murphyblue said: Got me stupid head on and can't remember how to edit. I been thinking about this all day like innit. They would be good for a much larger grow initial outlay would be more expensive depending how many u used compared to a good oilrad. But running costs would work out a lot cheaper. Plus with them being so small u could place them in and amongst the plants getting the heat where it's needed. I am all about efficiency u got to be the price on leccy these days. I have found this winter grow that getting the enviroment right is more than half the battle and less is defo more if its in the right places. First bit, literally draped across the plants and stuff. Turned up late last night and I was pissed . The wire is coming out the other side and then runs behind the side of the bed for a bit so you can't see it in the photo. Second bit. Running costs would be exactly the same, doesn't matter how big your heater is (or really what type) it will always cost the same amount of money to make the same amount of heat. A 1000 watt will just run for 10% of the time a 100 watt would. As you mentioned, what makes these better for certain purposes is the size, this is (supposedly) more powerful than both my 1ft tube heaters in the flower tent. The less space I have to give the heaters the more space I can give the plants. Edited January 22 by MindSoup 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmeh Posted September 22 Share Posted September 22 Fucking love this idea Mindsoup, lool at resurrecting an old thread but I've been back to this one many times over recent months mate, thought you might appreciate seeing that someone saw and ran with it. I won’t bore you with the full plan for my winter heating solution right now, but I basically wanted something similar to what you imagined doing in the first post, but several units, and to keep them from costing £££ I’d need get inventive. So, I did some inventing, I do love a good invent sesh I spent ages eyballing your pics and doom scrolling ebay and the besos engine to work out a way to make them cheap and repeatable. Finally found a good supplier on ebay that sells the ceramic bulb holders for about £2 a piece, but you need to sort your own wiring/mounting. This is fine, because I'm ghetto af I bought 4 to start with. Regular 12v pc fan scrounged from my old pc, mounted with bolts to the clamp from a long dead monkey fan, and bulb holder mounted to the fan, such that everything has adequate air flow, spacing around it, and is mechanically solid enough to trust unattended. Dab of superglue on threads, that's the mikly-white spaff you can see, I know it looks a bit blue-peter but the plastic of the fan housing will give way before the bolts do, if you pull hard enough. Clamp is as strong as you expect from those monkey fans, I've had many fail but never because of the clamp. Currently the fan is running at just 5v on an old logitech 0.5a supply, I think 2.5 watts should be enough for 3 maybe 4 of these fans? The wires are just fastened with connector blocks, if it works as a solution over winter then I may go nuts and solder the wires permanently and sleeve them. All wiring tidy and out of the way. I have a 12v supply I could use but this is super-silent and potentially less vibration going to the bulb? Guessing there. Since these pics were taken I've finished two of these units, and fitted 100w ceramic heat emitter bulbs, tenner for a pair. I left them running in the tent, mounted quite low probably just below the canopy. Ambient temp 16-17c, 5" RVK on wac1 setting #2 which is what i'll likely use for most of a winter grow. Came back after an hour, air temps had risen to 22-23, but struggled to rise much above that, it may have continued to climb but rate of increase slowed hard. With the 12v fans running as you can see in the pics but on 5v power, I could touch the ceramic bulb holders with my fingers and they were basically cool to the touch. Which is a nice side-effect but I wasn't brave enough to try touching the ceramic bulb! Before anyone asks, you can't knock it so the bulb touches anything, the bracket or the fan case stops it before the bulb can foul on the sides of the tent. Brave branches however will just have to take care! As you can prob guess, the fans aren't for air flow in the tent per-se but kinda like those behind the radiator fans you see in houses, to make sure the warm gets distributed around so it’s an added bonus it cools the bulb. It doesn’t ping and creak on heatup or cooldown when the fans are running which makes me think it will also prolong the life of the bulbs, well hopefully who knows... Currently with 2x 100w bulbs I should be getting hopefully, probably, roughly (lol) the amount of warmth I'd expect from a 250w HPS, but right in and around the plants. When things get colder, prob from October/November I could possibly throw a 150w bulb in each one, so that’s about as warm as a 315w CMH? - the point is to provide a constant background warmth that I can work with, from a device that is designed to safely keep running 24/7. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted September 22 Author Share Posted September 22 @Jimmeh That looks brilliant dude! I still haven't even sorted my cables out so it's nice to see you make something proper out of one. I think these ceramic heaters make a lot of sense for grow rooms, compact and convenient. I'm theory 300 watts of these would be comparable to quite a higher wattage bulb, the bulbs using most of its energy producing light. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmeh Posted September 22 Share Posted September 22 Thanks mate I hope so, I'm getting ready for a cheeky winter grow so will definitely keep you posted how they work out - I was stalking this thread like mad for ages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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