CO2 Monitor for Grow Room Enrichment and Safety

Indoor grow rooms offer a variety of advantages to the farmer. Indoor conditions, in particular, provide for more control over the components that help plant growth—light, air, water, and nutrients—while avoiding damaging devastation from animals, insects, and harsh weather.

One aspect of indoor gardening, whether it’s traditional soil-based or hydroponic, has recently gained traction: air. Not only the air we breathe, but a specific component of this life-sustaining gas known as carbon dioxide (CO2).

The most common components in air are nitrogen and oxygen, followed by a variety of trace elements such as argon, contaminants, and carbon dioxide (which usually accounts for only 0.04 percent of total air composition). The same gas that is being blamed for climate change and global warming is also responsible for greater plant growth.

What exactly is CO2?

Every day, we are surrounded by carbon dioxide, which is made up of one part carbon and two parts oxygen and is produced as a consequence of numerous typical activities such as breathing and driving our cars. Plants, thankfully, use this carbon dioxide and return oxygen to us; nevertheless, for many years, the rate of carbon dioxide generation has considerably outpaced the rate of oxygen conversion by plants.

This imbalance is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, in which excess gases such as CO2 linger in the atmosphere, trap heat, and cause global warming. Other gases and pollution add to this effect, but carbon dioxide is by far the most well-known, posing a moral quandary because rising CO2 levels can also boost plant growth.

why is CO2 beneficial to plant growth in a grow room?

It’s all because to the amazing process of photosynthesis. Plants ingest sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water and convert them to fuel in this process. This process produces oxygen as a byproduct. That’s the fundamental process flow; it may get a lot more complicated, but you can see how crucial carbon dioxide is in this equation.

Scientists have recently noticed a “greening effect” in plants, which they believe is caused by higher greenhouse gases (and thus more carbon dioxide) in our atmosphere. Plants can grow quicker as a result of the increased carbon dioxide, and as a result of the increased chlorophyll and photosynthesis, they become more green.

Carbon dioxide fertilization is thought to be responsible for 70% of plants becoming more green. Others say that plants adjust to higher levels of carbon dioxide and thus rising pollution should not be attributed to assisting plant development. CO2 is a vital component of the photosynthesis equation, which gives life to all plants and, by extension, all living creatures.

The necessity of having ideal CO2 levels in a grow room for your plants, whether it’s cannabis, veggies, or whatever, cannot be overstated. The discussion then switches to what are the best CO2 levels for an indoor grow environment.

What is CO2 enrichment, and how does it work?

CO2 enrichment is the process of increasing the amount of CO2 in the grow room so that plants can reach their full photosynthetic potential. To put it another way, make sure CO2 isn’t the limiting element in photosynthesis. This is presuming that all other aspects of the grow room, including as light, water, and nutrients, are already well-optimized.

CO2 levels in the grow room should be between 800 and 1500 ppm, or 0.08 percent and 0.15 percent of the overall air composition. As previously stated, normal air typically contains 0.04 percent carbon dioxide, whereas plants typically stop growing at roughly 0.02 percent CO2.

The small percentage difference between ideal, normal, and non-supporting CO2 levels necessitates the development of a precise and efficient system for measuring and introducing CO2 into a grow room.

What is the use of a CO2 meter in a grow room?

Safety Tips: CO2 enrichment in grow rooms can be exceedingly harmful if CO2 levels become too high. Even at relatively modest levels between 1000 and 2000 ppm, severe sleepiness, headaches, and nausea might develop.

CO2 enrichment in an indoor grow room, especially a sealed grow room, should be done with prudence and the goldilocks mentality in mind: not too much CO2, not too little, just enough to help those plants grow to their full potential. This will also provide the best value in terms of CO2 cost management.

In this approach, a CO2 meter is critical for increasing CO2 levels in an indoor grow room. Atlas Scientific offers a gaseous CO2 meter that is factory calibrated and ready to use right out of the box—it even has threads to screw directly into a piping configuration for easy continuous monitoring.

By employing a CO2 meter in the grow room, you can ensure that CO2 levels do not rise too high, posing a health risk to humans, while also monitoring CO2 levels to ensure that they remain within optimal photosynthetic ranges for the plants. Both of these factors are critical when dealing with CO2 enrichment.

How can I boost CO2 levels in my grow room?

CO2 can be introduced into a grow room in several ways:

1. CO2 generators burn fossil fuels (propane, butane) to produce CO2.
2. Bulk tanks of liquid CO2 are released under regulated conditions and converted to gas.
3. CO2 grow bags use a fungus to release CO2 continuously for roughly 6 months.

The size, scale, and overall purpose of your grow room production will determine which CO2 enrichment method is best for you.

Due to the dirty cycle that produces undesired residue along with the CO2 production, CO2 generators are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. This constitutes a major health danger in the case of cannabis or other consumable plants and should be avoided at all costs.

By providing pure CO2 with no polluting byproducts, bulk CO2 tanks provide a more sustainable, cleaner, and controllable solution to CO2 enrichment. With the right valves, safety, and a possible automated setup, this strategy can become extremely sophisticated and expensive. Because the CO2 setup is comparable to that of draft taps, it is recommended that you seek help from local HVAC professionals or even craft brewers.

The key benefit of this strategy is the autonomous CO2 bulk tank approach, which uses a CO2 meter and controller to measure and control CO2 emission. If everything is set up correctly, the ideal CO2 levels for plant growth will appear on their own. Should any portion of the system fail, safety procedures with the CO2 meter should still be strictly observed. However, a large-scale operation that requires a lot of CO2 will considerably profit from this strategy and save a lot of gas when compared to CO2 generators.

CO2 grow bags, on the other hand, are a wonderful and economical solution for CO2 enrichment for small to medium scale, even personal operations. They use a permeable bag that contains a patented fungal mass that degrades over time and releases CO2 (depending on which size you buy, about 6 months). Because CO2 has a lower density than normal air, these grow bags should be suspended above the plants receiving CO2.

The natural process time of photosynthesis is a significant consideration when adding extra carbon dioxide to a grow room. Because photosynthesis necessitates the presence of sunlight, it can only occur during daylight hours (strict 9 to 5 for these green workers). As a result, increasing CO2 levels at night is not encouraged and, quite frankly, is not an efficient use of your carbon dioxide supply. A light sensor may be used in some settings to inform the automated system when day and night occur, allowing the CO2 to be released or stopped.

The advantages of a closed grow room

When it comes to CO2 enrichment, safety is crucial, especially in an enclosed grow room where any mistake might result in dangerous CO2 levels. As a result, a CO2 meter is critical for air quality monitoring.

The advantages of a sealed grow room, in any case, include, but are not limited to:

• Control of the elements has been strengthened (temperature, water, nutrients)
• Plant pests, illnesses, and bad weather are all being reduced.
• For quality and consistency, individualized plant strains are used.
• Maintain ideal CO2 levels for plant growth.
• Reduce the amount of CO2 emitted and the expense of doing so.

Finally, the advantages boil down to providing a secure environment for plant growth in order to assure optimal circumstances and safety. CO2 enrichment can help your plants develop faster, but it can also put your health at risk if the levels aren’t regulated appropriately. Purchase a CO2 sensor to monitor air quality and ensure healthy levels are maintained, and you’ll have piece of mind.

If you’re not sure which sensor device is right for you, don’t hesitate to contact the GZAIR Detecors team.