I am working on buying equipment for a future grow, so wanting to focus on a Co2 setup & regulator/controller. What do you guys suggest & why? I assume the smaller 2 foot tall tanks would be easier to lug around compared to a 4 foot tall tank, even though the 2 foot will have to be refilled more often. I was looking at possibly getting a Sentinel CHHC4 cool/heating/humidity/Co2 controller Would a regulator still be needed? If so, what do you guys suggest? I've looked at the Co2 generators & this sounds like a great idea, but it is not sure if an open gas line will be available (don't want propane - might as well stick with refilling Co2 tanks.) & dealing with all of the extra heat can be an issue. I've seen they have water cooled generators, but man it just seems like a lot of wasted water to keep the unit cool. Thoughts?
You won't waste any water if you have your burner on a closed loop with a chiller. Also, the water only runs when the unit is burning gas, so if your room is properly sealed up, you can run-to-waste without much waste water. I cool all my rooms with water on 2hp and 5hp chillers. I can, however, run everything to waste if the chiller fails. I added this option after the plastic fan in the 2HP Chillking exploded and sent my temps sky high. My biggest room is only 15x20 feet with standard ceilings. I'm a fan of Sentinel controllers. I avoid C.A.P. because I've had many CAP products fail in short order.
stink brings up alot of good points... whats your budget? do you have a A/C unit for the grow space? can you deal with a increase in heat if you use a burner? can you deal with the heat from a chiller? do you have enough room to have a chiller on the same circuit as your grow?(I cant thats why i ask) there's a simple version and a complicated one(much better but much more expensive) the simple is just getting a tank(or 2 is better) and a regulator with a timer... a package deal is best... then you just set the timer and the regulator to increase the amount of CO2 to a level your looking for... the downside is you never really know the PPM reading and your most likely going to use more CO2 you could add a CPPM-4 to the tank/regulator/timer and have that dispense the CO2 to a proper PPM level to help save CO2 and control growth rate much more accurately OR.... you can add a CO2 burner... and have a much better system... but you have to be able to deal with the heat or have a Cool Flame CO2 generator and never ever get a tank but you have to deal with heat and water... and possibly a chiller like stink suggested... kinda depends on your budget and your grow.... my preference is the first two options.... mostly because i cant deal with more heat in my grow space... but the temps outside are over 110 in the summer and a couple more degrees in my grow space would not be good... and because its all i've seen in action and I can stand by how they work... so its basically a lack of physical knowledge and use... but im sure stink would be more than willing to help you get exactly what you need
Hmm. So many choices lol. Budget is kind of whatever it needs to be for the best setup for me. As to what that is, I'm not sure yet. I think I want to include the use of the Sentinel CHHC-4 since it will keep everything consistent & precise & control other things than just Co2 obviously. If I were to use a C02 generator, would it still link in with the Sentinel? Would you guys say the Sentinel CHHC4 is one of the best controllers of it's kind on the market? (For that price range give or take) I am also hoping to get a controller that will send alerts/notifications to my iphone & ipad. Does the Sentinel do this? This is really a feature I want in my grow setup. (also plan on having video that I can connect to via my iphone & ipad to see the grow whenever I want) If not, what controller that is the same high quality, hopefully within a similar price range will send alerts & notifications? Ideally I would prefer the Co2 generator since it doesn't require to be constantly refilled. But dealing with the heat is something I need to figure out if I go that route. I will say that I plan to go with an all LED grow, so the "normal" heat from HPS/MH won't be there. But I still don't want to replace it with heat from a Co2 generator. So am I then looking at running an AC unit AND a chiller? So that there is going to add more to the monthly electric bill, something I am trying to make as efficient & as low as possible. If I were to get an AC unit I would try to get one to also act as a dehumidifer, but if I'm getting the CHHC4 I think I would need them to be two separate units for the controller to work properly right? Sorry for being all over the map, there are obviously a lot of choice & I'm trying to narrow it down & figure out what's best for me.
Budget is a big deal. For example, my 5HP chiller was around 7 grand and the 2HP was fifteen hundred. That alone is far more than most spend on their home set up. Then you add in 16 8in Ice Box heat scrubbers @ around $150 a pop, light rail 3.5 motors for every light at whatever they cost, all the plumbing, back up pumps, bulbs, hoods, control units, burners, dehumidifiers, containers, Soil/grow substrate, nutrients, etc... You can see how it adds up quickly. Anyhow, I have the CHHC4, but I like the older CTC-1. Both are nice units that will control your PPM regardless of your choice to go with tanks or burners. However, I don't think you can have it send messages to your mobile device. I could be wrong, but if you want that kind of action, you might have to go with a unit like this: Watercooledgardens.com :: Room / CO2 Controllers :: AgrowTek GrowControl GC-C Climate Controller I also highly recommend using a water cooled burner to produce your CO2. I however, would go with the Hydrogen Pro from Hydro Innovations. They look like the same burner, but I promise HI is going to give you much better customer service that Advance Nutrients, the makers of the Cool Flame. The Hydro Innovations version also has the option of the Ice Cap, and pre-filter. I recommend both. The units are extremely sensitive to any obstruction at the inlet screen... even a dog hair. If your unit won't fire, clean the inlet screen, even if it looks clean. The addition of the pre-filter has eliminated any screen blockages, but you have to keep your filter cleaned every so often. With the use of the Ice Cap, the gas comes out of the burner at 79 deg. F running to waste on my well water that is probably around 48 or 50 deg. F. So additional heat isn't a problem from the gas, and you need to fill your propane tank FAR less frequently than you would if you use CO2 tanks. I run water cooled dehumidifiers from HI, and they help cool the room too. I use no conventional AC of any kind. Everything is cooled by well water or PG on a closed loop. I can control the temps and humidity very accurately. I would consider my rooms to be pretty well dialed in at this point. Took some time, but the rewards are tremendous. Good luck. Hope I helped some.
Ok, you bring up a fair point on budget. I'd say maybe around $2k give or take. I don't want to get crazy & spend 7k on a chiller. (Nor can I really afford to) I'm sure it's a great unit, but not the route I want to go. I know I want a controller, it seems to just be able to keep everything under an eagle eye & super consistent which maximizes efficiency all around. It seems that the cO2 generators are around $350ish, even for the water cooled ones. The HI was the one I was looking at before: HI Water Cooled cO2 Generator But do they offer a gas generator? That one is propane. What is the Ice cap feature & what does it do? I would prefer to go with a generator over having to refill cO2 tanks all of the time. And if I were to get a generator, I might as well build in a gas line so no propane tank has to be refilled or get in the way. And I need to figure out a way to keep the heat down & it seems that the most efficient way to do it is via a chiller to keep water waste down. But this will also increase the electrical bill. What size chiller would I need to properly run one of these water cooled units? I know that going with a larger than need HP chiller extends the life greatly from not having to run at max capacity the whole time. I was hoping to spend around $500 on the Sentinel CHHC4 controller, but I just came across this: iPonic 600 Controller Which is much more my style as far as "techie" things go & also has alert & notification options among a slew of other features. When you click on the "Comparison Chart" below the description, it blows the Sentinel 4 out of the water. Granted it is more expensive, but the alert/notification to my iphone is a must have option for me. And clearly the other controllers that can do it also seem to be around that $1k price range. It does show that the Sentinel CHHC4 does have software, so maybe inside of the software the alert to smartphone is possible. It is for sure on the iPonic 600. So I would like to be less than 2k total for a system like this hopefully, depending on how much the chiller is going to run me.
Yes. They do make a natural gas conversion for the burner you were looking at, the HydroGen Pro from Hydro Innovations. I know a few people who run theirs on their home gas line, and have no problems. The Ice Cap is just a mini Ice Box that fits on to the top of the burner where the gas is expelled. It improves the amount of heat removed from 86% to 98%. I recommend it if you are going to get a water cooled burner. When I didn't have the Ice Cap, the gas coming out of the unit was warm (mid eighties.. maybe 90), but after the addition of the ice cap, the gas comes out at 79 F. The Ice Cap simply gives the unit more cooling power. I don't know much about the technology regarding off location control, but I don't need that kind of thing. I'm sure someone else has plenty of ideas about controllers that would work for you. What size room(s) are we talking about? How much lighting? How many plants?
My hopeful idea for a medical grow is having 2 separate rooms, one veg, one flower, each having 32 plants for a perpetual cycle. I only use cO2 in the flower room correct? The flower room will be setup with 4 rows of 8 with a walkway down the middle of the middle two and a walkway around the perimeter for maintenance. I honestly haven't figured out the total size and not sure yet. Maybe 15x15? Probably larger I'm sure. I need to figure out how to calculate how large I want each plant to grow in flower, add in the walkways & areas for supplies & equipment for the flower room. Nothing is set in stone yet as far as location & I can customize to what is needed as far as space. Keep in mind I want to keep it efficient though. The veg area will be larger to accommodate mothers & clones as well & other various supplies with a large table top work area & large spray down/clean/shower area for all of the equipment. Each 2 plants in a row will have their own 96x3w diode LED fixtures with reflectors for a total of 16 lights per room. I was watching a video where they were mentioning the gas conversion kit & mentioned some states have low gas pressure & it can't be used? I am in one of those states, but I couldn't imagine not having enough gas pressure to run it. I'll have to contact the company for a little more info. I agree with upgrading the unit with the pre-filter & Icecap. What size chiller do you think I would need? Should I just shoot for a 3/4-1hp chiller? I know gas can be expensive, are these things costly to run on the gas end or are they pretty efficient? I know they only run certain times of the day for a short period of time.
So I bought the HI Hydrogen cO2 generator yesterday. I will order the gas conversion kit, Icecap & the filter in about a week or so. Now I need to figure out what size chiller I want. I assume the biggest I can afford, but I also want to make sure the one I get is going to do all of the equipment I need it to. I am going to be going all LED, so the normal heat associated with lights shouldn't be a problem to a point where I won't have to worry about cooling them any more other than the breeze from the fans blowing. So that removes that aspect of needed cooling from the equation. But I do think I need to incorporate a dehumidifier in order to completely dial the grow in don't I? If so I want to figure out which one I want before I order the chiller to make sure I get the right chiller. I can run both the cO2 generator & the dehumidifier off of the same chiller right? Do you think 1 hp is enough or would I need 1.5hp? I was looking at the Ecoplus line of chillers.
Stink bomb, I can't seem to find the pre filter for the hydrogen pro, do you have a link? Never mind I think this is it right? http://www.watercooledgardens.com/product.php?productid=16397&cat=264&page=1
Yup... that is the one. I wish, however, they hadn't made it out of clear housing for the filter membrane. Mine grow green algae of some kind. If it was light impenetrable, I don't think this would happen. I was also going to say that if you can't get the conversion kit to work because of low pressure or whatever the issue was, you can just get a 70 or 100 pound propane tank. If your room is sealed up well, those larger tanks of propane will last a long time. Even the smaller tanks usually used with gas grills last for months. (obviously it depends on the size of the room, amount of light, number of plants, etc...)
I would call Hydro Innovations and speak to them about exactly what you want to do. The ChillKing chillers they push are overpriced, but good quality. There are also some experts on water cooled setups on a different forum. thcfarmer.com has a section devoted to cooling methods. There are a couple guys in there that really know their shit when it comes to water cooling.