making CO2 with a Wood Burner

Discussion in 'Advanced Growing Techniques' started by dagobaker, Dec 25, 2007.

  1. was wondering if anyone has thought about using a wood burner to both heat an adjacent room and help turn the o2 the plants create into co2 which the plants need ?
    while getting cheap heating in the process.
    need to increase my temps and am squeezing more and more plants into my grow area and was thinking about basically making some free co2 and not increasing my electric bill at the same time. the wood burner is in the room next to my grow room.

     
  2. im guessing it would work if the theres air blowing from the wood burner towards the plants.....
     
  3. I'm pretty sure that there's a lot more produced from burning wood than carbon dioxide... carbon monoxide for example? That and for most people heat is a problem in the grow room.
     
  4. what he said ^^
     
  5. but the smoke and impurities are going out the chimney and only the heat is staying
    i figured it would eat up all the o2 from my 16 plants and then give off tons of co2 which the plants would be able to eat up
    this is just an idea a friend gave me(he had no idea about co2 just the heat co2 is my idea)
    plus the wood came from a tree that fell so its free
    :p
    and i really need about 10 more degress both day and night
     
  6. There's a chimney involved, then how is that in any way increasing the CO2 in the room? You're only drawing fresh air into the room and out the chimney...

    Now, if you want to go through the trouble of keeping a wood-burning stove fed in order to heat the room that's all well and good. I will say however that free wood will run out before the winter months are over... A much more cost effective solution (in terms of actual cost of resources and your time spent maintaining ideal conditions) would be to pick up a $50 oil-filled radiator heater. Low cost (minute electricity), no maintenance, no need for a chimney, etc...
     
  7. good point
    i usually open the front of the wood burner to get the maximum amount of heat in there
    which would increase the co2 but probably not to the point of helping alot
    guess my plan is flawed oh well just trying to grow the best product at the least cost
    im not sure if i need that much more co2. i have 16 plants in a 14'long by 3.5'wide area with 2 600 watt hps on movers
    i open the grow area every night (i have the lights on at night to use less heat) to give it fresh air.
    in the summer ill open the windows but now its too damn cold so i was looking for free co2

     
  8. sounds dangerous to me..dont you need really good ventelation if your going to have a FIRE burning indoors?
     
  9. all of the smoke goes through its chimney
    im just thinking outloud u guess
    going to stick to electric heating
     
  10. if i were you, i wouldn't try it.

    like someone else said already, too many other things are created by the fire. and if you have vents, there would be no need to have a burner, all the shit would go out the window. smoke is bad for plants anyways. chimney would only provide heat. btw, if there's smoke venting from your house...can't the fire dept. bust you?
     
  11. why would the fire dept bust me?
    i have a fire place and wood burner
    hell i know people that heat their entire house through wood
    and i dont use that much anyway
     
  12. I doubt your plants will like smokey air. why don't you just get an exhaust fan for your grow, and be done with it? Adding co2 is pretty difficult to do without a large investment in equipment.
     
  13. yea with 16 plants i shouldnt really need it anyway i open the door every day during the 12 on and give it hours of fresh air.......thankx
     
  14. Hey wait! I have a free-standing gas heater and a vented gas heater and I can tell you that a vented heater likely WILL increase the ambient levels of co2 in the air.

    Just make sure you have enough gaps around your doors and windows to let fresh air (oxygen) in. You might need to crack some windows. If I don't crack them, I start to feel lazy.

    I say fire that sucker up and see how your babies respond. Doesn't seem like you've got anything to lose. If you have a great setup otherwise (HPS light, hydro) you'll see faster growth w/in
    a day or two.

    At worst, all the gases it generates could end up venting out, in which case it would still pull fresh air in and heat up your house.
     

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