The grow room environment is complex. It can’t be too hot, too cool, too humid… The slightest change in humidity or temperature can throw the entire environment off balance, leaving you with some major losses. This is why grow rooms are considered critical environments, and it’s for this reason they need specialized equipment to keep everything well balanced.
The need for a specialized HVAC system
A grow room HVAC system not only needs to keep up with the various environmental factors, but it must also support a large amount of square footage while keeping crops healthy and maintaining efficiency.
And here’s where the issue with traditional HVAC systems begins.
Modern grow room cultivation is in the nascent stage and traditional HVAC technologies are just not equipped to deal with this new phenomenon. Traditional HVAC systems are not able to maintain the optimal environment for plants, i.e. they cannot effectively control and balance temperature, humidity, airflow, and CO2 levels.
So how do specialized HVAC systems differ from conventional systems?
Temperature and humidity control
Grow rooms must maintain specific temperature and humidity ranges according to the environmental requirements of each specific crop. While traditional systems will likely struggle to keep up with all the various ranges, specialized HVAC systems are built for this. They will maintain the optimal temperature and humidity with precision, regardless of the crop being grown.
Efficient energy consumption
Grow rooms are extremely energy-intensive and HVAC is among the main elements that contribute to the high energy consumption. Fortunately, specialized HVAC systems are now being built to provide energy efficiency.
Take Harvest Air, for example. The unit does not rely on brute force to heat and cool grow spaces. Additionally, the unit comes with variable speed compressors that ensure that electrical output is accurately matched to the load for maximum efficiency.
This is especially important since grow rooms experience varying loads at each stage of a crop’s growth cycle and these loads require different levels of power output. Instead of wasting energy and increasing the electric bill and overall operational costs, specialized HVAC systems increase energy efficiency.
Related: How to Achieve Energy Efficiency In Grow Rooms
Improved odor management
Although this doesn’t apply to every crop, it certainly applies to cannabis. With a high concentration of cannabis plants, cannabis grow rooms are notorious for producing an overwhelming aroma. However, having a specialized HVAC system can improve the efficiency of odor control and management. For example, with Harvest Air, you can add indoor air quality (IAQ) products that help mitigate odor.
Specialized grow room HVAC systems also offer several other benefits.
The ability to avoid the effects of downtime
Since specialized grow room HVAC systems are built for the critical environment, they account for the fact that grow rooms can’t afford any downtime. As such, they are built with redundancy in mind. This means that in case of a component failure, the system keeps on working and you can take action and schedule repairs without affecting your grow room.
Without this inbuilt redundancy, the breakdown of a single component will knock out heating and cooling for the entire space, and this will be disastrous for the entire operation. The beauty of investing in a robust specialized HVAC system is that with a regular maintenance schedule and timely repairs, you’ll likely never have to worry about any downtime.
Adaptability
Investing in a good HVAC system makes up a big part of a grow facility’s capital expenditure. As such, it’s a good idea to only pay for a system you want to use immediately not one you may want to use in case of any potential future expansion. You want to avoid upfront payments on a system that will remain largely unused and this is where a good specialized HVAC system comes in. It will help you avoid unnecessary investments.
For instance, a specialized system that comes as a series of separate units will allow you to scale as you grow. You don’t have to worry about a once-off investment when setting up your HVAC. This versatility allows for maximum flexibility, ensuring that you never pay for more than you need at a specific time.
Maximizing ROI with a specialized HVAC system
It’s important to realize that HVAC options extend beyond traditional systems. Instead of worrying about potential losses due to unreliable HVAC, it makes sense to streamline environmental control and increase efficiencies with specialized systems. At the end of the day, businesses in the indoor grow room space must contend with a range of problems, but not having a specialized HVAC system should not be one of them.