How much does it cost to fill a room with CO2?

I am going to be using a Co2 generator.

Does anyone know how to calculate the amount of PROPANE needed to keep PPM at 1500 for X amount of time in a SEALED room of X size?

The reason why I'm asking help with this calculation is that I want to know how much is it going to cost - filling the room with Co2.

I don't want to know the price for Co2 controller or analyser, just gas itself.

I need to know how big of an investment am I looking at.

Roughly, what to expect?

I found this calculator: http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/co2_calculator.asp

It asks for 3 things:
1) room size
2) amount of Co2 to add in PPM
3) flow meter setting or generator size in CFH (Cubic Feet per Hour)

What the hell is the third one and how do I get to know the answer for this?

I'm really trying.

Okay, I entered 24 cubic feet per hour for an example:

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Result
Grow room area: X cubic feet
Amount of CO2 required: 9.9 cubic feet
On time: 24.9 minutes

At this flow rate:
If you are using a 20 pound CO2 bottle with a regulator, it will last 7.3 hours.
If you have a CO2 Generator a 5 gallon propane tank will last 22.5 hours.

This form will calculate how much CO2 will be needed to fill a grow room to the required level. It will also determine how long it will take to fill at the given rate.

It will not calculate how often you will need to refill the room with CO2. There is no way to calculate how much the plants will use or how much leaks out! Usually you would want to refill just after an exhaust cycle or every 3 hours.
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What am I going to do with these numbers? There has to be a way to guess the total amount of gas needed, at least approximately.

I need to get an idea of how big of an investment is it going to be. I have literally NO IDEA, really.

But I need to know before I start with the project.

Can someone help me with this?

Hm. FWIW. I grow in a 10x9 sealed room. Propane co2 generator in the closet (its open ) keeping my ppms at 1000 +\- 100. I havent refilled my tank after 70 days. Still going! Tanks on during the 12 hours of light.

Sir KK

Flowmeter's are available @ Hydraulic/Pneumatic Equip Co's.Parker Dealer's are known to keep several on the shelf.About $80-100 but these are Hedland Flowmeter's and will last a lifetime.Breathing is the cheapest way to go depending on the size of the room of course...Dry Ice is Frozen CO2 but that shit was expensive the last time I picked some up....

Kush Killington said:

Hm. FWIW. I grow in a 10x9 sealed room. Propane co2 generator in the closet (its open ) keeping my ppms at 1000 +\- 100. I havent refilled my tank after 70 days. Still going! Tanks on during the 12 hours of light.

Sir KK

Click to expand...

I told myself I would never use a propane source but with this arctic blast coming and the new building is nowhere near ready, I put My Crawfish Boiler inside there yesterday So no worries about cold.Half of the Poly is up and the building is fairly airtight....

Kush Killington said:

Hm. FWIW. I grow in a 10x9 sealed room. Propane co2 generator in the closet (its open ) keeping my ppms at 1000 +\- 100. I havent refilled my tank after 70 days. Still going! Tanks on during the 12 hours of light.

Sir KK

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You didn't say a word about the size of your tank.

hydrotech364 said:

Flowmeter's are available @ Hydraulic/Pneumatic Equip Co's.Parker Dealer's are known to keep several on the shelf.About $80-100 but these are Hedland Flowmeter's and will last a lifetime.Breathing is the cheapest way to go depending on the size of the room of course...Dry Ice is Frozen CO2 but that shit was expensive the last time I picked some up....

Click to expand...

I mean really.. I'm not going to be keeping PPM at 1500 by breathing. I'm trying to get an idea of the fuel consumption when going for the Co2 generator route.

I sorta hope Ya get it up @ around 1,000,000 PPM and get a nice Nap .....

How many threads are you going to make about carbon dioxide in your room?

What is your grow room specs? What size lights?

What is your air exchange rate?

How many plants do you have?

Why are you trying to fill a room with co2 when you have to vent the damn room to move air and heat anyways... supplementing is fine. You are never going to fill it.

TheYokel said:

How many threads are you going to make about carbon dioxide in your room?

What is your grow room specs? What size lights?

What is your air exchange rate?

How many plants do you have?

Why are you trying to fill a room with co2 when you have to vent the damn room to move air and heat anyways... supplementing is fine. You are never going to fill it.

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What the fuck? Air exchange rate? Why are you talking about ventilation? I'm talking about Co2 enrichment. Obviously it's going to happen in a sealed grow room. You don't need to know the size of my room in order to be helpful in this matter.

TheYokel said:

Why are you trying to fill a room with co2 when you have to vent the damn room to move air and heat anyways... supplementing is fine. You are never going to fill it.

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Actually in a sealed Co2 enrichment environment you control everything. AC for cooling, dehumidifier for RH, stand alone fan and filter for smells, and generally sealed air cooled lighting rigs to help with heat control.

Some folks vent at night to replenish the air during the dark cycle.

Look up Texas style grow rooms.

HELMUT as you know I can't really help much on Co2 enrichment costs as it varies so much country to country.


Good luck though.




J

When flow meter is set at 20 cubic feet per hour, it will take 30 minutes to fill the room to 1500ppm with co2 using propane (co2 burner/generator).

This is what I know now, but one thing that I don't know is that how often do I need to refill the room with co2. In other words - how many times a day do I need to release gas for 30 minutes at a time?

I am familiar with the idea that there's no sure way to calculate it and it's a task of a controller to do it properly, but as I have already mentioned, am I trying to get the idea of how big of an investment am I looking at. Roughly. An idea. Of an investment. Fuel consumption.

Helmut79 said:

When flow meter is set at 20 cubic feet per hour, it will take 30 minutes to fill the room to 1500ppm with co2 using propane (co2 burner/generator).

This is what I know now, but one thing that I don't know is that how often do I need to refill the room with co2. In other words - how many times a day do I need to release gas for 30 minutes at a time?

I am familiar with the idea that there's no sure way to calculate it and it's a task of a controller to do it properly, but as I have already mentioned, am I trying to get the idea of how big of an investment am I looking at. Roughly. An idea. Of an investment. Fuel consumption.

Click to expand...

I'm sure we've had a similar conversation in PM's.

My advice still stands.

Maximise the potential in your room as it stands without any additional investment.

When you're hitting 1-2gpw out of your room without adding Co2 and you can't seem to break above it then contemplate Co2.

Or if you have a hard time controlling high temps due to location then consider sealing your room and controlling everything.



J

https://www.rollitup.org/t/how-often-to-generate-new-co2.427285/

According to this thread, I've found people suggesting different things - different opinions about how often to generate new co2.

Opinions varied from every 20 minutes to every 66 minutes (off time).

This calculator does not calculate the "off time", but it does calculate an "on time" for you: http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/co2_calculator.asp

I did find out what my on time is, which is 30 minutes.

Now started researching about the "off time" and this is how I found out about the thread that I linked.

One cycle consists of "on time" + "off time".

"On time" means it's when the gas is being released and "off time" means it's the amount of time it takes to start releasing gas again (in my logic).

So according to these people opinions, my cycle takes 50-96 minutes.

Every 50 to 96 minutes the gas is being released for 30 minutes at a time (off time being 20-66 minutes).

Oh well, according to my calculations the fuel consumption is going to be 5-10 L per day.

Helmut79 said:

You didn't say a word about the size of your tank.

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Its jus one of those small 5 gallon tanks yu can get outside of home depot and some 7-11s.

Helmut79 said:

This is what I know now, but one thing that I don't know is that how often do I need to refill the room with co2. In other words - how many times a day do I need to release gas for 30 minutes at a time?

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Im confused here. In a sealed room, yu shud only have to "fill" it with co2 once a day (in the morning when lights first come on). After that you shud only need to top it off. My gen comes on everytime the ppms drop to like 900-950. Its on for like 30sec tops and then its off. Not really sure how many times it cycles on each day but i can here it fire up from my living room. Sounds like it comes on once every hour or so.

Sir KK

jondamon said:

Or if you have a hard time controlling high temps due to location then consider sealing your room and controlling everything.

Click to expand...

The main reason why I'm considering going this route is because I have a hard time controlling my LOW temps due to cold weather and big grow room.

Kush Killington said:

Im confused here. In a sealed room, yu shud only have to "fill" it with co2 once a day (in the morning when lights first come on). After that you shud only need to top it off.

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Well, plants consume Co2, but I don't know at which rate. I only know that I need to keep PPM at 1500.

You need to give the plants time away from the enriched co2 as well. and I don't just mean venting

Granted yields are proven to go up 10-15% in the correct environment. But ferulic acids and flavonoids are also proven to decrease if certain plants are over-exposed to co2 enriched environments. I'm sure no scientists have used cannabis in particular yet to test, but:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031942204002651

they have tested it with other herbs. If you pump your room past their optimum point, sure, you will still get bigger yields...

but your buds won't have the same smell and flavor profiles.

add co2 as a supplement...

and you don't need 1500ppm... seriously, your plants won't be using that much. it can even be toxic...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=221893

read more about your new co2 addiction before trying to dive to deep.

According to my calculations I'm looking at the investment of 300-600€ per 84-day cycle (from late veg until harvest) with my gas price being 0.69€ per liter.

It seems that I couldn't have gone very much wrong with my calculations. Now I know that I'm rather looking at 500€ for the gas instead of 5000€.

Thanks for the help.