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Nepenthes chamber

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Hi. I have this grow chamber I built, that's 60" by 60" by 30" . It's just a wire frame with 2 mil plastic over it (pics on my website) . It has 4 shoplight tubes outside on the top and two cf tubes on the inside. The thing has temps from 84~90F during the day, and 70~74F at night. This is great for lowlanders, but my collection is primarily highland, as are most species. So..., how can I do SOMETHING to lower the temps atleast 5 degrees at night, atleast for theese summer months? I'm trying not to spend too much iether
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, thanks.
 
if you add a fan in should lower the temp a little bit, you can try connecting one of those portable AC unite to it.
 
what are the temperatures outside at night? If they are low enough you could run a vent and pull in some air from outdoors.. You would have to watch your humidity though. Only other way I can think of effectively cooling would be a small AC unit like Justlikeapill mentioned. You would have to watch your humidity as well...

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Temps outside during this time of the year dont go below 65, but in the winter and spring the go down considerably, and at that point I could use air from the window. But, I need something for summer months. Where can I find one of theese ac units, and how much are they? Thanks.
 
i saw them at homedepot, i've never used one so that's all i can tell you.
 
Small AC unit? hmm probably would check walmart or something.
 
At wal mart I got a window AC for $76.00 but they go in a wide variety of prices and features. The chamber you've got probbaly won't be very good at holding cool temps for very long. I used the same style at first but some clear greenhouse wall panels (try www.farmtek.com) would be better insulators and still clear enough for you to use light from the window. I would not have lights inside the terrraium environment, You're lowering the humidity and increasing the temperature when you do that.

How "highland" are the plants you're growing? Fusca and maxima or aristolochioides and villosa? My highland plants suffer when they are kept at the high temps you're describing so I try never to let the nights get above 60*F in the hottest days of summer (comin' up for me) but in spring, fall, & winter their nights go down to between 40-50*F with a daytime rise of no higher than 80*F, though I preffer 70-75*F for my highlanders during the day. Everyone has their own situation but for me when my values stay outside that range for a month or two in summer the higher altitude plants will not pitcher until the previous climate returns in September.
 
Yea, I'd put the lights outside... but man are those reflectors expensive:( . I would just need the cooling at night, so the plastic covering cant be too harmful. I have typical highlanders right now, the most highland being pilosa, but I would like to start growing a few rarer species again. I will deffinately check walmart tommorrow. How big are theese things? Think I could get one from K-mart?
 
the ones i saw were about the sized of a mid sized dog and larger than your average TV. you can try k-mart but i think you can get better stuff online.
 
  • #10
My new one is 16" L x 13" H x 16" D but the only part which I see is the 16 x 13" x 3" face of it, the rest sticks out the window and drips it's condensed water outside.

Almost everywhere sells the window AC's nowadays but I have not found them cheaper than at Wal Mart/Sam's Club.
 
  • #12
That fan would be very nice If I could somehow get just the head inside the tank
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. I guess it's time for more construction work... or, I could put the fan in the back where the window is, and cut a whole the exact diameter of the fan head into the plastic, stick it through a little, and tape the edges to the fan to seal it! What do ya think?
 
  • #13
have you thought about an evaporative cooler?
 
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