Large Indoor Cannabis Cultivator Attains Tight Control Using Desert Aire System
Overview
MILWAUKEE, WI, March 28, 2023: Recently, Desert Aire Controlled Environment Agriculture Brand Manager Chip Seidel spent a day touring an impressive Desert Aire customer cannabis facility. After wasting time, money and energy with imperfect solutions, the organization contacted Desert Aire for a purpose-built indoor grow HVACD system.
Having tried several other HVACD systems with limited success, a large indoor cannabis cultivation group contacted Desert Aire due to its’ grow room climate control expertise. The cultivation group’s goals were simple: to achieve tight environmental control with a reliable and energy efficient HVACD system.
Desert Aire started the HVACD system equipment selection process by working closely with the director of cultivation to complete a proprietary load calculation questionnaire. This in-depth process considers numerous impactful variables and allows Desert Aire to fully model the sensible and latent loads precisely at each stage of cultivation in order to accurately size equipment. Unfortunately, 90% of grow facilities do not have correctly sized HVACD equipment, which results in wasted energy and the inability to maintain control of room temperature and relative humidity percentage. Inadequate equipment sizing practices and poor knowledge of plant science are the main culprits. For the last 10 years, Desert Aire has been refining their proprietary sizing calculator for indoor cultivation as best practices have evolved. For example, a grow room lit with LED lighting needs to be sized differently than a room lit with HPS lighting.
This recent site visit confirms that the upfront sizing work paid off. The cannabis operation reports hitting all their VPD targets while using substantially less energy than previous systems. In addition this customer noted that Desert Aire’s VPDSync™ control algorithm does an excellent job making minor adjustments to the system automatically to optimize results and keep their cannabis rooms tightly in the desired VPD range. This customer also relies on Desert Aire's AireGuard™ remote monitoring platform to compare results between its facilities to ensure best practices are being followed everywhere.
Facility Info:
18 flower rooms with 240 LED light fixtures per room
Desert Aire GrowAire™ HVACD units for flower and veg rooms
Desert Aire DriCure™ HVACD units for drying/cure rooms
Design engineers and cannabis facility owners, reach out to learn more about our environmental control options for indoor growing.
Contact a Desert Aire Rep near you to get started on selecting HVACD equipment for your CEA application.
See our Cannabis Indoor Grow Rooms and Farming page or technical bulletins and application notes to learn more.
For more information view the following Application Notes:
Application Note #25: Grow Room Load Determination
Application Note #26: Grow Room Environmental Control
Application Note #27: HVAC Systems and Grow Room Energy Usage
Application Note #28: Vapor Pressure Deficit and HVAC System Design
Application Note #30: Structure Design in Grow Room Applications
Application Note #33: Impact of Design Conditions on Grow Facility Equipment Performance
