I'm still digging sealed for total environmental control. Even sealed with air exchange is better than constant air exchange imo.
Glad you're starting to see the light
Mr. A - for the homebrew. What is it, if you don't mind my asking?
IME , it`s definitely better to pull fresh air into the lung area that get`s pumped in bloom rooms and then sucked back out to either be re-conditioned back into the lung areas , or exhausted back outside through exhaust/scrubber combo`s.....now...
You need to be careful venting out your basement... Do you have gas furnace or water heater? If you create negative pressure in your house, you'll reverse the flow of the chimney and pull CO2 back in the house. You need to have a window open or something for passive intake.
I have a stove with 2 pilots burning all the time. For the longest time I was super tired all the time, and I couldn't figure out why. Well then one day my CO2 monitor arrived, and I have ambient CO2 levels around 2000ppm. With prolonged exposure this is enough to decrease the amount of oxygen in the blood, and create health problems, like lethargy. Now I keep the kitchen window open, and I'll be installing a vent in my kitchen for when I'm cooking as well as buying a new stove. You should see the CO2 levels when I'm baking... Off the charts.
Anyway all that being said... grow rooms pull air in from the lung, and exhaust out to it. The lung needs to pull air from outside, and vent outside. Control the temps in the lung, and the grow rooms will follow.
I'm still digging sealed for total environmental control. Even sealed with air exchange is better than constant air exchange imo.
Glad you're starting to see the light
Mr. A - for the homebrew. What is it, if you don't mind my asking?
Dare I say if I set my beds up with blumats, and got them dialed in perfect with my tensiometer, I could walk away from my 6.8kw room for at least a week now that I'm done with foliars... Seeing how I'm using peat and organics w/ plain water, perfect environment... following blumat recommendations of 150-180mbar moisture level has my plants looking healthy. Too wet and you see more issues.
Best way to describe the process.Anyway all that being said... grow rooms pull air in from the lung, and exhaust out to it. The lung needs to pull air from outside, and vent outside. Control the temps in the lung, and the grow rooms will follow.
I prefer to avoid all of the (potential) pitfalls of exchanging outside (the house) air thru the garden, and just vent thru the (conditioned) air allready in the house. This way I don't have to worry about neg air preasure causing carbon MONOXDE poisoning. I get my "intake" air from another area of the basement, and vent into the cold air return trunk of the (house) HVAC system.
In summer the central air handles the additional heat, allbeit reluctently. In winter, the garden goes a long way toward heating the place.
Prices have gone through the roof since I bought my battery operated units back in the day that gave ambient temps and RH levels as well as CO2 ppms Mr A , but the lil plug in model @ co2meter.com , and yas don`t haveta worry bout batteries......still.....So now that I am officially paranoid about asphyxiating in my sleep. Any recommendations on how to monitor the CO2 levels? Handheld meters look like >$150. Anything cheaper?
There's a much greater quantity of CO2 vs CO when gas is combusted. Both have negative health impacts when the concentration is too high. CO has much longer lasting health impacts. You can have low levels of CO and elevated CO2, as was my case.