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CO2 Generators in Sealed Grow Op

rrog

Active member
Veteran
I'm looking at a 220 sqft grow area. Just under 2000 cubic feet. I'll be sealing this up and now need to look at burners, meters and controllers. I didn't find a sticky here, so I figured I'd just ask

As a side note, I'm looking at Growtronix to control the rooms. Came highly recommended by a guy I trust (our own Rives), so I'm OK jumping in the pool. The Grotronix will ultimately measure and dispense the CO2.

Thanks for any insights on CO2 generators.
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
I'm looking at a 220 sqft grow area. Just under 2000 cubic feet. I'll be sealing this up and now need to look at burners, meters and controllers. I didn't find a sticky here, so I figured I'd just ask

As a side note, I'm looking at Growtronix to control the rooms. Came highly recommended by a guy I trust (our own Rives), so I'm OK jumping in the pool. The Grotronix will ultimately measure and dispense the CO2.

Thanks for any insights on CO2 generators.

I've got an old school green air that worked good. Will create heat and H2O, as anything thing that reacts with O2 will. They now make em to hook up to a chiller and you can burn methane or propane. So the upside would be if you have nat gas at site no need for constant refills. Otherwise I'd go bottled. Get at least 2 big tanks, limit your runs...

Another idea...If its a sealed room buy a disposable CO2 tester and 1 Exhale (cost $50 for both), put em in a small sealed area and see what the ppm is. Then extrapolate how many Exhales for your large sealed room. They last about 4 months each. See which is more cost effective and ez to manage...
 

rrog

Active member
Veteran
Thanks for that. I should have mentioned that I'll be running off propane. The propane burner will be controlled by Growtronix. Looking for recommendations on the burner, or anything related. Like the Green Air unit you kindly mentioned.

Thanks!
 
T

turtle farmer

My recent CAP 8 burner installation made my garden 1000% better.
I'm not hooked up to a controller yet,I'm on a timer that is 3 minutes on and 1 hour fifteen minutes off.No intake,room is exhausted thru the lights and into the veg room.
just my $0.02
 

rrog

Active member
Veteran
Turtle Farmer, that looks sweet. How do you calculate the heat it puts off? I'm trying to calculate my needs for a mini-split.

Also, you have a dehum, I assume?

Thanks for posting. Very helpful.
 
T

turtle farmer

I put a mitsubishi mr slim in the room before the generator..I assumed I didn't need anything more than the a/c and some wall fans with the room sealed up..Boy did I learn quick..Both work very well together..my ceiling is 9 ft.(or eight,i forget) high which helps with what little heat the generator puts off..another crop or two and I'll get a controller.
I guess to answer your question,I've never ran the generator without the a/c. .I'll shut off the a/c off tonite and get back to you on how much it warms up..before the a/c the four 1000's got things warm,so the generator wouldn't have been noticed,i think..
I need to quit getting so high while coming to this site..sorry for rambling
and yes a duhum in the room as well..plumbed to drain continuously,screw that emptying the reservoir twice a day..
 

overbudjet

Active member
Veteran
using a hydro inovation watercooled co2 generator also on Growtronix.I am using Grotronix since the old 5 volt model,this is so fun to work whit these kind of toy !Some pic of my Growtronix automation

 

overbudjet

Active member
Veteran
Mine is set on low and and fill my room in less than 2 min.my room is around half than your,and a 20lbs. tank last me around 4 weeks.
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
Very helpful. Thanks. I'll have a look at the CAP burners.

Green air's CD-24 would be the model that'll fit your room.

Max btu/hr is 17500 at around 10 min/per hour run time that's 3k btu/hr.

So running the green air CD 24 10 min/hr (about what you'd need to be at the 1200ppm level) produces the same heat as a running 1k bulb continuously.

Or another way to look at it is that it is the minimum btu's it would take to keep a well insulated 2k ft^3 (size of your room) heated in the winter.

They have a insert that allows it to hook up to exhaust fans, which I may have to see if it fits my legacy model...
 

growshopfrank

Well-known member
Veteran
using a hydro inovation watercooled co2 generator also on Growtronix.I am using Grotronix since the old 5 volt model,this is so fun to work whit these kind of toy !Some pic of my Growtronix automation

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=32617&pictureid=930779&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=32617&pictureid=902248&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

funny fact-they sell something the same as the hydro innovations water cooled CO2 generator in China and they call it a water heater made me laugh my ass off and yes the price point is very low
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
Turtle Farmer, that looks sweet. How do you calculate the heat it puts off? I'm trying to calculate my needs for a mini-split.

Also, you have a dehum, I assume?

Thanks for posting. Very helpful.

3412 btu's = 1 kilowatt hour

Determine the models max btu per/hr, then determine how many minutes per hour...

Relate to the fact that 3412 btu's = a 1000 watt bulb. That'll get ya in the ballpark of heat output.
 

rrog

Active member
Veteran
Thank you all for this great information. Very kind of you all.

I am seriously looking at simply modifying a tankless water heater that Frank just mentioned. Watercooled. There's a long thread on another forum where several guys have done this.

The Growtronix will control the ppm measurement, timer, and activation of the burner. Reported to run very cool.

Any gasps or thoughts on this?
 

growshopfrank

Well-known member
Veteran
digital ballasts tend to inject enough interference into power lines that they cause problems with timers/controllers that are plugged into the same panel
 

rrog

Active member
Veteran
Holy shit? I appreciate the explanation. So to use the latest automation, we have to use the oldest ballast tech? Is there no grounding / something that can be done to fix this? Glad I know now.
 

overbudjet

Active member
Veteran
Holy shit? I appreciate the explanation. So to use the latest automation, we have to use the oldest ballast tech? Is there no grounding / something that can be done to fix this? Glad I know now.
The only way i found to put my quantum at work was to hard wire the lamp to the ballast no lamp cord at all.
 
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