Darkroom temperature control

[jameswilgeroth]

Hi guys & gals,

I have recently been building a darkroom in my attic and have got to the point where i am ready to begin developing film and prints. There is, however, one small problem - i live in the U.K, it's winter, and it's far too cold in there at the moment to even begin procesing (10 degrees celsius and getting colder). My question is this...

Does anybody know of any cheap, thin, and useable insulation materials to help to maintain the temperature with a heater in place? The darkroom is fully plumbed, hooked up with juice, and has a lovely set-up so i really do need a viable solution to the problem. Anybody had similar problems?

Your help is much appreciated

Thanks

 

[Early]

I was also set up in an attic, but did all my developing down in the kitchen using drums made for color prints, even when I was doing b&w.

Btw, won't you be needing air conditioning in the hot summer months?

 

[Derrel]

Well, a large sink full of warm water, AKA a "water bath" is one way to keep temperatures near where they need to be for a reasonably long time. Heaters of various types--might there be a problem with visible light from say an electric heater's element fogging prints?

What about those electric coil heaters sold at gardening supply houses--they kind you bury underneath the soil? I don't know much about them, except that a fellow up the street fro me, who moved here from a really cold climate, bought a house and immediately installed hundreds of feet of this underground heating "wire" stuff throughout his flower beds. Seems to work great--his flowers come up wayyy before anybody else's do in the spring!