Plant starter heat pad

[jrsavoie]

Does anyone know anything about grow/heat mats & thermostats/controllers?

Our basement isn't quite warm enough.

I need something at least 2' x 4'.

I have an electric floor heat mat. Made to go under a tile floor. I don't remember what I need or have to install it.

Any ideas on something to cover it with? I thought about the biggest tile I could get to cover it up and protect it.

It's a temporary thing, so thinset isn't in the plans. Only need it for about 4 weeks. And then hopefully next year.

I think I robbed the thermostat a few years ago.

I can't remember where the mat I have came from

Search: 495 results found for "Mat*"

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[Zeke]

Pics aren't showing. Be careful with that. A dog warmer might work but they aren't waterproof and not designed to be covered over with a hard surface.

 

[jack stand]

Are the commercially available purpose built mats prohibitively expensive?
Plants aren't cheap and I'd bet it wouldn't take long to pay for them grown.
I think you're a little late for this year.
Let us know what you get into.

 

[Shiftless]

A 3x5 foot sheet of cement board seems like it would be appropriate,

 

[jrsavoie]

Are the commercially available purpose built mats prohibitively expensive?
Plants aren't cheap and I'd bet it wouldn't take long to pay for them grown.
I think you're a little late for this year.
Let us know what you get into.

Do you have a link to the mats you refer to?

This might be thing for several years, so price per year comes into play.
Thanks

 

[jrsavoie]

A 3x5 foot sheet of cement board seems like it would be appropriate,

Thanks.
I never thought of cement board.

We are a tiny late for this year.
But I just keep plugging away getting done what I can.

We have about 4 weeks before last frost.

We started several weeks earlier last year.

We heated the garden shed last year, but thought the basement would work better since it's already heated. It's just not quite hot enough.

Our original plan involved a small green house attached to the garden shed. That never happened either.

 

[jrsavoie]

Are the commercially available purpose built mats prohibitively expensive?
Plants aren't cheap and I'd bet it wouldn't take long to pay for them grown.
I think you're a little late for this year.
Let us know what you get into by

What we have is something like these.

bathroom floor electric radiant heat - Google Search

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

We live in an older brick farm house that has it's challenges with heating in some areas.

While not used for plants, we bought a cheapo plant mat off Amazon, for my wifes kombucha brewing and it has worked flawlessly going on 3 years now.

Self controlled thermostat, just plug it in and forget about it.

The challenge with the mat you have is it can be run at MUCH higher temps than what you would want for your plants. Does your thermostat you have the ability to set the heat / temp level at what the mat runs? I know the system I put in under our new bathroom tile can be set for different heating levels based on what flooring you have installed.

 

[jack stand]

Do you have a link to the mats you refer to?

This might be thing for several years, so price per year comes into play.
Thanks

I used to get some catalog, don't remember the name, possibly Gemplers but that's a guess.
I just searched seedling heating mat or pad and got pages of results including use and methods.

 

[jrsavoie]

We live in an older brick farm house that has it's challenges with heating in some areas.

While not used for plants, we bought a cheapo plant mat off Amazon, for my wifes kombucha brewing and it has worked flawlessly going on 3 years now.

Self controlled thermostat, just plug it in and forget about it.

The challenge with the mat you have is it can be run at MUCH higher temps than what you would want for your plants. Does your thermostat you have the ability to set the heat / temp level at what the mat runs? I know the system I put in under our new bathroom tile can be set for different heating levels based on what flooring you have installed.

We haven't looked at the thermostat yet. I may have robbed it for another project.

If I had my hydronic floor heat hooked up, this wouldn't be an issue

 

[jack stand]

Funny you mentioned that. I've thought about making a small "loop" off of the manifold to run under seedlings on some sort of purpose built table.

 

[no704]

How large an area? Maybe a 55gal drum heater?

 

[Moss]

If I am understanding what you are trying to do (use the heat mat you already have for seedlings) I have been using some shelly devices and they are really easy to work with. Maybe you could get a shelly relay and temp sensor and make it work? You'd have the relay to use for something else if you didn't need it for seedlings any longer.

https://www.shelly.cloud/en/products/shop#unfiltered

 

[Stevee]

amazon has them pretty cheap, all different sizes.

 

[jrsavoie]

A 3x5 foot sheet of cement board seems like it would be appropriate,

Just a foot to short.

We bought 2 pieces to make it work.

The 1/4" asbestos board, we used when I was much younger, was far stouter. Less prone to cracking

 

[jrsavoie]

If I am understanding what you are trying to do (use the heat mat you already have for seedlings) I have been using some shelly devices and they are really easy to work with. Maybe you could get a shelly relay and temp sensor and make it work? You'd have the relay to use for something else if you didn't need it for seedlings any longer.

https://www.shelly.cloud/en/products/shop#unfiltered

The temp sensor and thermostat were still in the box.

We got the pad installed and it seems to be working well.

I set the thermostat to 72 but may bump it up the next time I go to the basement