Do I need outside air if i get co2 enrichment?

I want to compliment you on your sound thought! I was happy to hear that you want to dial in your room prior to adding CO2. Because you HAVE to be dialed before CO2 will add any benefit to your grow. Actually, if you don't get it dialed, right away, you'll be doing more harm than good! This is very important.

I've learned that a sealed room is a big commitment. It's important to know what that commitment involves to help determine if you have the resources, space, and lifestyle to support it. If not, then you'll cause yourself more headaches and problems than it's worth.

That said, let's think about a sealed space. It's sealed from the atmosphere, which means it doesn't exchange air with the outside. (For the sake of conversation, we're not going to worry about trival air mixing like entering and leaving the room during normal visits to the room) Any moisture in the room will stay in the room. Any heat added to the room will stay in the room (assuming it's insulated well). Moisture, whether it's in the air, or in a reservoir, is all still in the room. A dehumidifier will remove it from the air, cool it down and dribble it out of a hose for you. It also adds heat to the room... Heat, by the way determines the dew point in the room, which is when the moisture in the air condensates back into liquid water, and falls where it will. As you can see, water has a very specific lifecycle in a sealed grow room. You MUST control every aspect of this lifecycle to have any degree of success. This is a non-negotiable fact, based on sound science.

A perfect environment is a fine balance of your control of temperature, humidity, and fluid management. That's just to control the environment, if you want to actually grow plants in there, you also have to maintain a balance of CO2 in the air and oxygen at the root zone. There' some pretty basic science behind this, and a whole lot of trial and error. Unfortunately, trial and error is expensive and it takes a lot of time to sort out. I probably don't have to tell you that, as you've already figured that out.

No ifs ands or buts about it, you need the following, at minimum to successfully run a sealed room:

1) Environmental controller. This is the backbone of the whole operation. It will automatically control all hardware needed to control the individual elements. It's the brains of the whole thing.

2) Split-type air conditioner. Split type means there's no mixing of inside and outside air. Window units and the "portable" R2D2 looking units on wheels won't cut it. The power of the AC unit is dependent on on the number of lights in your room, and it's size. The A/C unit does only two things, and is the most critical piece of hardware in your room. It transfers heat outside of your room, and condensates the moisture out of the air, so it turns it back into liquid water again. Your A/C will do most of the work in maintaining good humidity levels in the room. The environmental controller will turn this on and off as needed.

3) Dehumidifier. This will pick up what the A/C unit didn't get. It will run during the lights off cycle than lights on cycle. The environmental controller will turn it on and off as needed.

4) Heat source. This will be needed when your grow lights, and every fan, ballast, pump, and other sources of heat in the room aren't keeping it warm enough. The environmental controller will turn this on and off as needed.

5) C02 source. This can come from a gas powered generator, or out of a compressed air cylinder. You can research which is best for your space and lifestyle. Keep in mind that a gas burner will not only add c02 to the room, but heat, and water (as vapor/moisture), too. The environmental controller will turn this on and off as necessary.

After all that, you have to do something with all the moisture in the air. The A/C and the dehumidifier will return a condensate. You must plan on this dribbling water 24/7, and have something to do with it too. This is can be tricky to balance, if you don't just run it out of the room and drain to waste. Keep in mind that when water turns to vapor, it leaves most of the elements (nutrients or contaminates) behind. So the condensate that is returned is nearly perfect water! This is a tremendous resource, so you should use it.

Water is added to the room in two ways: 1) via your reservoirs, or other method of watering plants (whether you carry it in by bucket, or it flows through hard plumbing, is insignificant, but that's main source of water entering the room. 2) by a gas CO2 burner.

Water can be removed from the room in two ways: 1) drain to waste outside the room (down a drain, or be the envy of the neighborhood and apply it to your lawn.) and 2) In the stalks and stems of any plant material that leaves the room to be dried elsewhere.

The reason your dehumidifier runs 24/7 is because it's heating the air, and condensating the water/ The water is evaporating into the heated air, and the cycle continues. You must remove water from the room, and reduce the heat to control your humidity problems.

FYI, I'm writing a book as an introduction to growing, as we speak. If it has any degree of success, I plan to follow it with an advanced and detailed manual of how to run a sealed room.

I hope you get some kind of value from this. Let us know what you decide to do!

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skunky33 said:

My basement has twice the Co2 as outside...just sayin

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