Tweaking & Researching Grow Station 2

Placing a larger piece of wood across the top of the freezer I will be able to get three trays, the heat mat can cover two trays completely of one in the middle and half of the trays either side .

I need to find a new home for the tree pruners and the garden rake, but that's a job for better weather as I need to clear the other two sheds that a full to the doors with junk.

As I said in a previous post there was confusion re the units of measurement of the temperature of the heat mat and I'm only looking at getting an increase of about 5.5 - 11 degrees C to the ambient temperature, half of that I was expecting.

Using a couple of the Lidl digital thermometers (I added a second after taking the photo) I have taken readings from the left side Tray 1 / Tray 2 / Tray 3 / on top of the mat between the mat and the corner of the mushroom tray over a three hour period and here were the results

Tray     1      2      3     Mat

3pm - 2.6 / 2.8 / 2.6 /   2.6 outside temperature 1.5 Celsius I then turned mat on

4pm - 5.0 / 5.1 / 4.8 / 12.0 outside temperature 1.5 Celsius

5pm - 5.8 / 5.2 / 5.6 / 13.1 outside temperature 1.5 Celsius

6pm - 6.4 / 5.5 / 6.1 / 13.6 outside temperature 1.3 Celsius

So although I could not feel the benefit of the mat with my hand there is an average increase of 3.39 degrees C in the trays over a three hour period. The temperature slowly continued to increase with time even when the outside temperature was falling between 5pm - 6pm.

I will re run this monitoring during a day over a longer time and see what happens beyond three hours, and without the associated heat loss from opening the door every hour take readings.

The timber will get battens screwed to the bottom either side of the freezer so that hooks on top and can't move sideways. I shall be lining the back wall and left wall and the underside of the shelf the light hangs from with white correx ( the stuff Estate Agent for sale signs are made of) to reflect the light.

At the moment the temperature obtained in the shed isn't enough for germination but may be OK for continued growth after germination, I think I need to look into that. If you have any views or opinions let me know in the comments below.

I may still look at a greenhouse tube heater with thermostat something like this to boost the ambient temperature to see if I can get nearer the 15 - 20 degree mark, again if you have used one of these tube heaters and think it would get me there please let me know before I sink another £20 - 30 into this grow station.